i love you for sentimental reasons
by summertimesadness
Summary: AU: "She's made everything so much better, Finn. Ever since she got here it's like she's patched up all of the holes we all have in our lives.. and you still can't tell me that you love her?" When 1940's Rachel meets 2010's Finn. Finchel with sides of Klaine and Brittana.
1. Doe Eyes and a Megawatt Smile

There weren't enough banana nut muffins for the entire table. Kurt and Quinn share glances from across the table as Finn piles them on his plate, wrappers piling onto his plate. The wake is his favorite part, because the mourning period is kind of over. They aren't in a chapel and the people around them aren't crying anymore. Finn doesn't have to hand his mother tissues each time she's busy reaching for Burt's hand to squeeze throughout the ceremony. He gets to sit at the table and not think about anything for a while, no matter how much Elliot wants him to.

"Only you could spend all of your time at a wake eating," he says with a flip of his hair. It's coiffed off to the side and looks fabulous, as always. There isn't a day that goes by when Kurt doesn't look like he belongs at New York Fashion Week. Finn looks down at his growing pile of muffin wrappers and looks to Quinn, who smiles weakly.

"Kurt's right," she tells him with a pat on the back.

But they're banana nut. They're his favorite.

"Fine," Finn says with a huff, setting his half-eaten muffin back on his plate.

:.:.:

Memorial Day weekend comes and goes, and Quinn stops by the Hudson-Hummel home with a picnic basket that Monday evening, planning a picnic for her and Finn underneath the crab apple tree in his backyard. Kurt just looks at them with a small scowl and they continue into the backyard, Quinn leading him to the tree and Finn following behind her like a lost puppy.

She's made him a batch of banana nut muffins just for the occasion, which he finds the moment she opens the picnic basket.

"You know, the community theatre's going to do a production of _West Side Story _this summer," she tells him, picking at her muffin wrapper. "I was thinking that maybe we could audition together. We could both be in a show this summer, Finn. I think it would be fun, anyway." Finn thinks about the fact of being in a musical for a moment. He doesn't understand how people pretend to be other people and can sing and dance about it, but it's all Kurt's been talking about for the past few weeks. He waltzes around their living room singing songs from the show and drives home blasting the soundtrack in his car.

"Are you going to try out?" He asks Quinn with a small grin. She giggles bashfully and continues to unpack their picnic basket.

"I thought it would be fun," she tells him sweetly. "I know it's all Kurt talks about. I thought it would be fun enough just to be in the chorus. Singing and dancing… and it would be even more fun with you there." She leans over on the picnic basket until she grazes his lap, leaning up to kiss him. Finn smiles and kisses her back, holding her close. She's the best thing that's ever happened to him.

:.:.:

"God, Finn, I wish you would just come with me," Kurt groans, grabbing his car keys from the hook by the door. "I'm going over to spend time with Nana and I think you should too. She just lost the love of her life, Finn." Finn looks back at the TV, his current game of Call of Duty causing him more concern than the conversation Kurt's trying to have with him.

He doesn't want to go. He knows that if he does, he's going to have to listen to Kurt talk about how much he loves listening to Barbra Streisand records and preparing dinner for their Nana. It's not like his grandmother is even Kurt's biological grandmother. His dad's mom has nothing to do with Kurt, and yet they have a better relationship together in the small amount of time that they've known each other than she and Finn do. Part of it angers him; making him feel like Kurt's worth the world to his grandmother while he's just his grandmother's grandson, the one that never talks to him. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be. Finn's pretty close with Burt, anyway.

His Nana needs him right now, though. No amount of old movies and Poppycock that Kurt buys her is going to mend her broken heart.

The game gets paused and Finn continues to turn off the television set, standing from his bean bag chair and looking at Kurt with a smile.

"You want me to drive?"

:.:.:

"I just love it when you come over," the old woman says from her chair, looking at Kurt with a smile. "And Finn! You've gotten so tall." She smiles sweetly as Kurt offers a hand to take her plates to the sink. "The last time I really got to see you, you didn't come up past your grandfather's shoulder."

Finn cringes a bit at the mention on his grandfather. He looks to Kurt in the kitchen and swears her can see him reacting in the same way. "Yeah, I'm over six feet now," he boasts, puffing his chest out a bit. If Quinn were with them, she would have laughed.

"You're a handsome boy, Finn. Any girl would be lucky enough to call you her own."

"That's what Quinn is for," Kurt tweets from the kitchen, causing their grandmother to look at him funny.

"You're seeing someone?"

Finn rubs the back of his neck nervously. He never would have guessed that talking about Quinn in front of his Nana would make him feel so uncomfortable, but it has. "She's my girlfriend, Nana. I should introduce you to her. She's really nice."

"And has an excellent taste in clothing, if I do say so myself," Kurt says again, waltzing into the living room. "Now, Nana, what movie shall we watch today, hmm?" He sits next to her on the edge of the couch, crossing his legs and leaning in to speak to her. "I was hoping maybe a Barbra classic and then ending the night with a Judy Garland picture?"

Their Nana shakes her head and smiles at Kurt, patting him on the knee. "That all sounds lovely, sweetheart, but I thought since Finn was here, he could choose. We can save Barbra and Judy for another day."

Finn feels dumbfounded; knowing that his Nana wants him to choose the movie they watch. He looks at the shelf by the television and tries to pick one, but he doesn't know where to start. They all look like they're in black and white or one of those movies where the actors don't talk and their words are shown up on the screen on cards.

He finally spots a title that he recognizes. One of his mother's favorites, if he remembers correctly.

"What about this one?" He asks, pulling the VHS from the shelf and displaying it to the two. "I think it's like, really famous or something, right?"

Kurt's face lights up and he smiles, clapping enthusiastically. "_Casablanca_! A classic." Finn smiles and pops the tape into the VCR, sitting down on the couch by Kurt. He hopes it isn't terribly boring.

:.:.:

It isn't terribly boring. He finds himself enthralled in the world of the film; in the lives of Rick Blaine and Ilse Lund. The woman reminds him of Quinn a bit, even though he knows he can't compare to the actor playing Rick Blaine. He could never be so suave and debonair and make women fall for him like that. He's still surprised that Quinn still dates him. Sometimes he thinks that it's all for the social status they receive. They were elected prom king and queen this past year, at their junior prom. Quinn is all about appearances; looking good and making sure Finn looks good. He doesn't know how he feels about that yet.

An actress in the film catches his eye by the time it ends, after he realizes that he's seen her throughout the entire movie. She doesn't speak at first, just stands in the front of the crowds of people whenever a large amount of actors are needed in a scene. She has these eyes that have to be the biggest eyes he's ever seen, and they remind him of Bambi's eyes from that cartoon movie he's watched over and over again. Every once and a while she smiles when the occasion calls for it, and her smile lights up the entire screen – even if it's just the television screen in his Nana's living room. It makes him wonder what it would look like to be in a movie theatre, seeing her smile up on a big screen. She's stunning; an ideal image in black and white.

She finally speaks towards the end of the film; some kind of line about Rick Blaine. Finn wants to know what her name is. She's so lovely that he feels like she has to be the star of some kind of movie. She's like Marilyn Monroe, only not as direct as the blonde bombshell. She exudes loveliness, not pure sexuality.

By the time the film ends, Kurt and his Nana are sharing a box of Kleenex between them. Finn sits on the edge of the couch, reading the screen. The list of starring actors are presented first, but he doesn't care about those. He wants to know who the girl with the million dollar smile is.

A long list of actors appears on screen, headed with the name he believes belongs to the girl he likes.

Rachel Berry. He types it into his phone quickly and saves the text message in his drafts.

_I'll Google her when I get home, _he thinks. _It's not like Kurt's going to know who she is._

:.:.:

She hasn't starred in any movies. It brings him close to the point of disappointment, and he doesn't know why. Part of him was secretly waiting for her to be some kind of pin-up model or be like the second coming of Grace Kelly or Doris Day – not that he knows who those actresses are to begin with.

She has different movies to her name – _Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind_ – even _South Pacific. _All are small, unnamed roles that have one or two lines. Finn tries to do more research on her, but to no avail. All he can find out is that her name is Rachel Berry and that she was is age when she appeared in the movie that he watched with Kurt and his Nana – eighteen.

Finn adds the movies she's been in to his Netflix queue. It's a great excuse for him to spend time with his Nana.

:.:.:

"I think I should wear something period for my audition, don't you, Finn? That way the directors can already picture me as their Tony." Kurt makes a face in the mirror in the main hallway of their house, Finn seeing him as he walks out of the kitchen.

"Whatever you say," he says with a laugh, giving Kurt a light pat on the shoulder. "I think you'll do fine no matter what you wear, man." Kurt gives Finn a little scoff, not bothering to lose eye contact with himself in the mirror.

"Tony was never partial to fashion-forward cardigans that end just above the knee, Finn." Finn rolls his eyes for a second and Kurt follows after him into the living room, sitting in the couch as he watches Finn finish off the Thin Mints his father bought, planning to eat for himself when the Indians game aired on Sunday. "You're not planning on auditioning, are you?"

Finn scoffs a bit, nearly choking on his cookie. "Not with my two left feet. They wouldn't know what to do with me?" Kurt laughs and adjusts himself on the couch. "I was thinking of maybe playing drums for the pit orchestra. Quinn wouldn't like seeing me pretend to be in love with some other girl or whatever, even if it was just for two weeks."

"Isn't she auditioning?"

"She wants to be Maria," Finn says. He doesn't know who Maria is, but he assumes it's the lead. Quinn was the lead in the musical at their school this year, anyway. A lovely Marian Paroo in _The Music Man, _alongside Kurt's interpretation of a traveling salesman.

Kurt nods his head and smiles. "Of course she does. She probably will be, too. Besides, Santana's going to kill anyone who gets cast over her in the role of Anita, so I think Quinn will fit in just fine as Maria. A blonde Maria, but who knows? Maybe they had bleach in Puerto Rico." He chuckles to himself and Finn laughs along with him, nervously and not knowing exactly what he's laughing at. He just knows that Quinn wants the coveted role of Maria.

"_You can buy me flowers to give me at the end, too," _she's told him after they're done making out and lying on the couch together. _"Everyone can know that you're my boyfriend and that I'm your girlfriend." _

Finn doesn't even know how he feels about it all. There's no one else in town that can play the part of Maria as far as he's concerned. Quinn's it.

:.:.:

He brings the movies over one by one to his Nana's as he gets them in the mail. Kurt doesn't come with, and he spends the time with his Nana, sitting with her and helping her cook dinner and just talking with her. He wonders if it makes her feel better, especially now that his grandfather is gone. It makes him think about what Quinn would do if he were to just not be there one day, and it makes him more nervous the more he thinks about it. She already becomes slightly paranoid when he has to go up to his cabin on the weekends, and he's not even seeing other girls while he's there. She's protective, but that's just one of the side-effects that comes from dating Quinn Fabray. He's learned to live with and doesn't talk about it with others.

The movies somehow take his mind off of everything else in the world. His troubles and other things stressing him seem to circle a drain and he's more concerned about the plot in the movie than his own life's troubles.

And then there's Rachel Berry with her effervescent smile and doe eyes that make him feel like everything's going to be alright. He doesn't have to worry that school's going to be over in the next few days and he's going to have to start studying for finals or that college is only a few months away or about his girlfriend being protective or her and Kurt auditioning for the local musical. He sees her on TV and he feels like everything's going to be alright.

It frightens him that she's able to do something like that. She's a movie star. She's supposed to feel like some kind of supernatural force. But she doesn't. It might be because she's not really a movie star, or because she's got such a breathless charm about her that he feels like she's smiling at him when he sees her in movies.

He watches _South Pacific _one evening and sees her running around the background behind Nellie Forbush, giggling and running in the water with other girls that look to be her age.

And they're in bathing suits. Not the skimpy bikinis that Quinn and Santana and Brittany all wear to the pool each summer. Her two piece bathing suit makes her look like a lady, yet sexy all at the same time. It makes Finn wonder why he wasn't born earlier so he could live during the 1940's.

He doesn't understand how she's been in so many movies and yet never starred in one – and then he starts to wonder if she's even still around, or if she's like his Nana.

He does a Google search on her once more that night, to make sure.

She's been gone for a while now. The website he's looking at says that she died at age thirty five.

:.:.:

The Hudson-Hummel household sits down to breakfast one morning, Kurt unable to stop talking about his audition for the community production of _West Side Story _in the summer.

Finn tunes him out, however, and he wonders if they've ever heard of her. If Rachel Berry is a household name that he just hasn't known because he's been ignorant to everything that's happened since before he was born up until now. He chooses to interrupt Kurt's chatter about the musical to ask.

"Have any of you guys ever heard of Rachel Berry?"

The family pauses and Kurt looks at him with a hint of disgust, upset that he's been interrupted.

"No," Finn's mother says, looking down at her plate. "You shouldn't interrupt Kurt, Finn."

Burt just looks at Finn and sighs. "Me either. Remember your manners, Finn."

Finn feels like a six year old after being told to brush up on his table manners. Kurt doesn't even say anything to the reference of her name.

"Who is she?" Finn's mother asks, now somewhat intrigued. Finn shakes his head, quickly trying to think up some kind of response. He doesn't want to sound disgusting and weird and say that he's been doing all of this research on this unknown actress lately.

"No one," he says, looking down at his plate of uneaten eggs. "Just someone I heard was auditioning for the musical, that's all. She goes to Carmel or something."

Kurt looks up from his plate, arching an eyebrow. "Well, let's just hope that she isn't better than Quinn, hmm?"

"Yeah."

:.:.:

He's forgotten that he left the movie on the night before, and he knows how mad his mom gets when he leaves his TV on when he goes to bed. He's woken up by a push to his shoulder, unsure of what his mother wants him for. It's a weekend; it's not like he needs to get up to go to school.

"Hello?"

_That voice doesn't belong to his mom. _

Finn opens his eyes, shocked beyond belief. He sits up in his bed and pulls his sheets to himself, realizing that he's just in his boxers and she's, well, in a dress. And beautiful. And standing in his bedroom.

Rachel Berry is in his bedroom. Looking at him with the same doe eyes that he's become so enthralled with.

He doesn't know what to think.


	2. Explanations

He's dreaming. He has to be dreaming.

"Where am I?"

Her voice is just as pretty in real life as it is when he hears it on his television, if not prettier. Finn holds his blanket up to his chest. He's automatically embarrassed not only by the fact that a beautiful girl is standing in his room, but because he's lying in bed, half naked.

He just looks at her, and she looks at him with the same looks of astonishment and shock.

_Pinch yourself, _Finn tells himself. _Pinch yourself and you'll wake up, and none of this will have happened._

Of course, the teenage boy side of him wants to wait. This is a dream, after all. Most of the time when hot girls are in his dreams, it involves the removal of clothing of some sort. He knows it's wrong, but waiting for her to do something would make him more sure that he was actually in a dream.

She doesn't. She reaches out to touch him, her fingers grazing his blanket-covered knee.

"Who are you?" She asks, her voice shaking a bit. "I demand you tell me, otherwise I'll be prepared to make a telephone call to the authorities." He can't believe this is happening. This _can't _be happening. A dead movie star is standing in his bedroom.

"Wait," Finn finally says, blinking as she steps back from him, looking scared half to death. He sits up in bed a bit, still not wanting her to see him in his boxers. "What's your name?"

"Rachel Berry," she says almost boastingly. "What's yours?"

"Finn," he says, almost stammering. "Um, Finn Hudson."

She rings her hands and looks at him nervously, repeating her question from before.

"Where am I?"

:.:.:

She explains to him what's happened, or at least to the best of her knowledge. She sits on the edge of the bed next to him, hands neatly folded in her lap and her skirt falling over her knees, legs tucked underneath her like a perfect lady. She looks like the picture of the decade she's from; hair neatly pinned and gently curled, her makeup not looking like she had tried to emulate a raccoon when she put it on. She's the image of loveliness, he decides.

Finn's by now gotten dressed and sits next to her, almost afraid to touch her. He's afraid she's not real and this is still a dream, but the more she explains herself and her situation, the more he realizes that she might not be lying. She's telling the truth.

"You left the television on the night before," she explains, her voice sweeter than ever. "All I know is that if you do that, you leave me the opportunity to come with you."

Finn shakes his head, unable to understand what she's saying. Part of him feels like this is going to end up like an episode of Scooby-Doo, and someone's going to unmask this girl pretending to be Rachel Berry and Quinn and Kurt and Santana and the rest of them are all going to come out from nowhere and let him know that this is all one big practical joke.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's hard to explain, and I apologize for the inconvenience." She stammers, having difficulty trying to find the right words. "But I'm afraid I can't explain much of it myself. I've only known one other person to do the same, but I've heard that it's been done hundreds of times."

Finn still can't understand what she's talking about. "Rachel," he finally says, interrupting her as she goes off on a tangent. "I need you to tell me exactly what's happening." He's starting to feel afraid now. Genuinely afraid.

Rachel looks at him and sighs, feeling her heart race and her breaths quicken. "When you were watching your film the night before, you fell asleep with it still running, and it hadn't finished. The television creates some kind of portal, I think – or at least I've been told. It lets me come through to your world, wherever this is. I don't know why I'm here, though. Everyone that's sent is sent for a reason, and you return after you've found your reason for coming… here, I suppose." She looks at him and bites down on her lip, her eyes still large and innocent – this time nervousness woven in somewhere, he can tell.

Finn thinks back to when he researched her online. "Wait… aren't you supposed to be dead?" He immediately regrets his word choice. Asking her if she's supposed to be dead? Quinn would slap him if she heard him say something like that.

"That's what I don't understand," Rachel mutters under her breath. "It was like I got to be sent to you in a second."

"Where do you live?"

Rachel doesn't say anything. She doesn't want to tell him everything. She's only met him, and she's stuck in his bedroom, in his house. She doesn't know who he is and she doesn't know when she's returning home – if she's even returning home.

"I want to ask you a question," she says, her confidence escaping her. "Where am I?"

"Lima, Ohio – the silliest excuse for a town." Her face lightens, eyes wide and a smile slowly appearing on her face.

"I'm in Lima, Ohio?" She appears comfortable for what seems like the first time since he's seen her. "I was born here, Finn. I was born and raised here."

He wonders why he hadn't noticed that when he was busy finding out as much about her as humanly possible. "Really? Well, that's good then, I guess. You'll know your way around town."

She stands up from the bed in a huff. "Are you meaning to say that I won't be spending my time here with you? That's awfully rude of you, putting a girl you've just met out on the streets." Rachel crosses her arms over her chest and looks at Finn disdainfully. "I would think that you would know better than to just leave me out in the cold like I was… some kind of stray cat or something." Finn stands from the bed and walks to her, upset.

"Look, I wasn't exactly expecting to be waking up to find you in my bedroom, alright?" Then it hits him. He has a beautiful girl in his bedroom. In the same bedroom that his mother checks on every morning to make sure he's awake. The bedroom that's in the house where his mother and stepfather and Kurt all live. No one can find out that she's here. If his mother were to walk in to find him talking to a girl in his room, she would jump to assumptions and think that he had done something unspeakable of in his bedroom the night before. Well, unspeakable for her, at least.

"What's wrong?" Rachel immediately notices the wave of shock crash over him as he realizes that she has to be taken care of.

"Look, Rachel, you can't stay here, okay? I promise you, I'll find somewhere for you to stay, but it can't be here. I have parents who keep a strict house and a nosy brother who would think you staying with me would just be… well, kind of weird."

"Why? What, would they think we were doing something wrong?"

Finn laughs at how naïve she is and smiles, noticing how she continues to look down at him, eyes bright and wide. "Kind of, I guess. Look, I'm going to school tomorrow and I'll ask someone, okay? I think I already know someone who would be more than happy to help you."

Rachel looks at him with a smile and giggles sweetly, taking him by the hand. "You're quite a gentleman when you want to be."

:.:.:

"Are you fucking kidding me, Hudson?"

Finn looks at Rachel as he continues to speak into the phone. She's still sitting on the foot of his bed, her head tipped to the side as she stares at Finn while he speaks. He doesn't take into consideration that she's never seen a cell phone before. The fact that he's talking into a piece of plastic and having a conversation with someone confounds her, but Finn doesn't notice.

"I'm not harboring your little squeeze at my place until she can find a place to stay. Why can't she just stay with you? God knows why you have a girl at your house that isn't Quinn, anyway."

He rolls his eyes and continues to look at Rachel sitting on the bed, now sitting up with her back in an arch, looking at Finn with eyes as big as saucers. He always thought that she was beautiful when he had seen her in the movies, but looking at her now, somehow alive and sitting in his bedroom makes him realize just how beautiful she really is. She doesn't say anything, like she's able to hear Santana's voice on the other end of the phone. For a moment Finn feels embarrassed; having Rachel listen to Santana cursing him up and down over the phone doesn't exactly portray him as a perfect gentleman.

"She's not my girlfriend, Santana. It won't be a big deal, I promise. Just let her stay with you for a couple weeks. Four weeks tops." Rachel looks at him and manages to smile, her smile seeming to light up his entire room.

"Four?"

"Unless you want me to have Kurt sabotage your audition for the summer musical. I know he knows how to do it." Rachel giggles softly and smiles, Finn smiling back at her.

"What's her name?"

"Rachel," Finn tells Santana with a smile. "And please, be nice to her Santana. She's not… she's not exactly from here." Santana sighs and stifles a laugh.

"What, is she from out of town or something?"

"Yeah. She's _definitely_ from out of town." Rachel makes a face and Finn assumes it's because of how she said that she was from here earlier, and he looks at her with a smile. "So will you do it?" He hears Santana groan on the other line, sighing deeply.

"Fine. Just don't think I'm letting you get away with this one, Hudson." Before he realizes it, Santana's hung up and he hears his phone click on his end, brushing a finger across the screen and hanging up.

"What is that?" Rachel finally asks, her eyebrows knitting together on her face in confusion. "You were speaking to someone, like you were using the telephone, but… you were using this." She stands and walks to him, the skirt of her dress swishing behind her as she walks. She peers over Finn's shoulder as best as she can, eyeing the phone he holds in his hand. Her eyes light up upon seeing the screen and she doesn't understand how something so small and colorful and bright can function as a telephone.

Finn looks at her standing behind him and smiles, showing her the device. "It's my phone," he tells her, not realizing that she wouldn't own a cell phone for herself in the 1940's. Realization hits him like a train and he unlocks it so she can see it, placing it in her hands. "It's just like the phone you have, only it's… smaller. You can touch the screen and you can type in numbers, like… like on a typewriter."

Rachel wraps her hands around the phone and analyzes it dutifully, letting her fingers stroke the sleek sides of it and painting them across the screen, becoming alarmed when it begins to vibrate in her hands. She becomes scared and drops it to the ground, stepping away from it and backing into Finn's arms.

He feels his heart skip a beat or two as she leans into him, looking up at him nervously. "Your telephone started to shake," she tells him, voice quivering slightly. "I thought it was broken, or that it was… it wasn't a telephone. That _isn't_ a telephone," she corrects him and herself indignantly. "You use a rotary to use the telephone. This is… it's a robot, isn't it?" She gasps a little and turns to face him, her back no longer resting against his chest. "I saw a double feature about robots once, at the drive-in."

Finn laughs to himself and bends down to pick up his phone. "I guess you could call it that," he says as he slips his phone back into his pocket. Rachel looks alarmed all of a sudden, like the phone is going to jump up and kill her. He can't blame her for thinking it; the movie about robots that she explains seeing sounds like it would have frightened her back when she first saw it. "But it won't hurt you, Rachel. It's just… a phone. There's a lot of stuff like that here."

"Where?"

"All around," he explains to her. Finn thinks for a moment, and realized that Rachel probably doesn't know what anything is that he uses from day to day. She doesn't know what the Internet is, or how a cell phone works, or what an iPod even is. Not even that, but the cultural customs from the present day compared to when she was alive make him wonder if she'll be able to embrace everything while she's here. It makes him wonder if she'll be forced to embrace them, because he doesn't know if she'll be here for a matter of days, weeks, months. Years, even. It frightens him for a moment, and it makes him wonder if she's frightened, too. He still doesn't fully understand how she's with him or why she's with him, and he doesn't really think she does, either.

It can be a question they can find the answer to together, he decides.

:.:.:

Quinn looks at Kurt, her eyes trained on his. She stares down at the script from time to time, breaking character by the time her line comes.

"I can't do this," she groans, tossing the script to the ground in a huff. "I'm not going to be able to do it at auditions, either. There's going to be some girl there who they think is better than me, and they're not going to-"

"Hey," Kurt says, stopping her from going off into a tirade. "You're going to be great, alright? You have so much going for you, Quinn. Captain of the cheerleading squad, dating Finn Hudson, the lead of the musical, junior Prom Queen – not to mention the most stunning girl in school." She blushes as Kurt continues to speak to her, picking her script up from the ground.

"You do realize that we'll be kissing in this production," she points out. "And you're not bothered by that?"

"I think the real problem we might have is Finn," he teases her, the two laughing together. "Seeing his girlfriend kiss his stepbrother? A bit uncomfortable if you ask me." Quinn begins to giggle and looks at him with a smile, paging through her script once more.

"From the top?"

"From the top."

:.:.:

Finn manages to move Rachel out of his room while Kurt is gone running lines with Quinn and his parents are grocery shopping. They've been doing that lately together, and although Finn doesn't understand why, he figures that it's for the best. It gives him an ample amount of time to drive Rachel to Santana's house.

"This car is so nice," she says in the car as Finn heads onto the freeway, merging into traffic without a hitch. Rachel stares out the window, her eyes unable to part with the scenery around her since they left Finn's house. "And there are so many cars, Finn, in different shapes and sizes and colors… do they make pink cars, Finn?"

"I think so," he tells her, not exactly sure. He knew that you could practically get anything you wanted detailed on your car, and he felt like telling Rachel she would be able to get a pink car would be something that would be easy. He didn't want to lie to her or anything. He figured Santana would try to lie to her enough as it was by the time she started living with her.

"Pink's my favorite color," she says sweetly, as if to herself. He smiles at her for a moment, looking down at her pale pink dress with the skirt that swirls up around her when she spins. He knows that Santana's going to laugh at her outfit and change her into something else by the time she starts living with her, but he admires her for the time that he can. She's really, really beautiful.

"Rachel, we should go over what you need to tell Santana and everybody else once you move in with her, okay? Just so we don't… have any problems." Finn developed a routine for Rachel to go through, a role for her to play to the citizens of town to make sure that no one finds out that she's from Finn's television. He decides that it's better that she's come during the summer, so that he doesn't have to sort out the whole school situation.

"Sure," she says, looking at Finn in the driver's seat and smiling at him brightly. "I can still use my own name, though, right?"

"Yeah," Finn says quickly, changing lanes and exiting the freeway. Santana's apartment isn't too far away now. "Just remember that you're a student visiting from Carmel for the summer, but your parents are missionaries and were unable to stay in town."

"And this Santana that I'm staying with is a family friend?"

"Yes," Finn tells her, affirming what he's told her at his house. He pulls into the parking lot of Santana's apartment complex and he feels like he's in a different world; a different place from where he lives. Lima Heights Adjacent isn't known for being the nicest part of town, and he can see the worry painted on Rachel's face.

"Are we still in Lima?" She asks, her voice shaking a bit. "Maybe you can call Santana on the phone and ask her where she lives. Did you bring your small telephone with you, or can you not use that outside of your house?"

Finn manages a chuckle at her quick firing of all of her questions, but shakes his head and looks at her with a smile. "No, this… this is it," he tells her, and Rachel looks at him with a worried expression on her face. It suddenly hits him how afraid she must be of this entire situation. She's been risen from the dead, or at least he's pretty sure she has, and she's been transplanted into 2012 America, far different from the America she's been used to in the 1940's – or at least it is according to his history textbook. She shakes like a leaf in her dress, sitting in the seat of the car uncomfortably and wondering how she's going to survive, probably. At least he knows that it's what he would be thinking if he were put in a situation like the one Rachel's been put in.

Finn unbuckles himself from his seat and helps Rachel with her own, considering she was confused by the seatbelt and its function upon getting into his car at his house. "Look, Rachel, everything's going to be alright, okay? I promise that Santana's going to take care of you and be nice to you, and that if she's not, I'll always be here, okay?" She turns to face him and her eyes are already welled with tears, a singular one rolling down her cheek. Finn wicks it away with his thumb and places his hand on her shoulder. She looks away from him and down into her lap, blushing nervously.

"I'm always going to be here, okay? Santana can drive you to my house and we can spend lots of time together, okay?" She looks back up at him sweetly and musters a smile, causing Finn to smile along with her. "And we'll try to get you back home, okay?" He wonders if she wants to go home. He would if he were her.

Rachel looks at him meekly and fixes her hair in the rear view mirror, laughing sweetly as he looks at her. "I want to spend so much more time with you, Finn Hudson. We can spend the summer together until I leave, alright? I promise."

She finds him hand and takes it in hers, and Finn takes her small hand in his, and he looks at her for a moment, not sure how he's supposed to react to her. "You're going to be perfect," he tells her, and she smiles. "You'll fit in better than anyone else here."

Rachel giggles and Finn opens his door to walk around the front of the car, opening Rachel's door and letting her out, her smile telling him everything.

He's going to make sure she fits in here better than anyone else does already. She's already fit in enough with him.


	3. Keeping Secrets

Finn had dropped her off at Santana's apartment, letting Rachel knock on the door and have Santana answer it herself. Rachel didn't exactly hear his excuse as to why he had left so quickly, but she had managed to pick something out that sounded like Kurt or his parents were going to be home soon, and he wasn't supposed to be out, so he had to go home.

Rachel stands in front of the door to Santana's apartment, ringing her hands like she had been earlier, when she was standing above Finn in his bed and trying to explain her being in his life for a matter of time that she doesn't even know about. It's just as sudden for her as it's been for him. Rachel doesn't know why she had been plucked from obscurity and transported to the future and has met this boy – this very nice boy, who wants to take care of her.

She knows why she's here, but she doesn't. There's only been one other person she's known personally to make the leap, and he's told her that everyone goes for a specific purpose. Once you've found that purpose and accomplished whatever you're supposed to accomplish, you go back. She's frightened, though. If she goes back, won't she just be dead again? And if she doesn't go back, will she die again at such a young age? She's noticed that since she's been with Finn Hudson, she's back to her favorite age; eighteen. She smiles a bit as she thinks about when she was eighteen, and all of the excitement and success that happened to her then – will it happen to her again now? She wants someone to come and explain things to her, because she isn't sure how she's supposed to go home if she ultimately wants to. There has to be someone that knows. Someone else that's made the journey and is still here, in the future.

_The present day, _she corrects herself in her head with a small eye roll. Finn's told her already that she needs to stop calling it the future.

Rachel gives the front door to Santana's apartment a few gentle knocks, hearing someone mutter something behind the door in Spanish, she thinks. She never took the classes at the community center when they were offered, mainly because her mother said that they wouldn't have been necessary for a young woman. The same with driving. Her mother had always said that a lady will always have a man to drive her places, so Rachel never learned. She wants to, though, especially seeing Finn drive. She wants her own hands on the steering wheel and she wants to drive for what seems like forever. It's a ticket to freedom, being able to drive a car.

The door swings open and Rachel is greeted by a taller, slimmer girl than herself, dressed in a tight dress that ends just above her knee. Rachel compares it to her own dress and doesn't know if it's simply a fashion statement for the time that she's been in or if Santana's trying to dress like one of the street walkers that live in Hollywood. Rachel had been asked to play a street walker in a film once and she declined, knowing it would reflect badly on her character.

The girl with raven hair narrows her eyes as she looks Rachel up and down, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms over her chest. "So you must be Rachel, hmm?" Her voice is cutting; Rachel looking down at her shoes as she speaks. Santana chuckles to herself dishearteningly. "Hudson's secret snatch. Who would have thought."

"I'm sorry," Rachel pipes from the stance in front of Santana. "I can go, if you'd like, but I can assure you, I'm not pinned to Finn."

Santana looks at Rachel like she's got lobsters crawling out of her ears. She's never heard anyone with such an extensive vocabulary, or that dresses the way she does, for that matter. This Rachel Spielberg girl looks like she could have been plucked from the cast of _West Side Story _herself. _Better for Quinn not to see her, _she thinks to herself. She looks like she could be in a musical… or a movie, even. She doesn't look like a real person – at least not a real person from this decade.

"…Pinned?"

Rachel blinks at Santana, feeling her heart swell a bit. She knows she's not supposed to use terms from her time, but she doesn't know any better. They don't seem like terms to her, just regular colloquialisms that she uses. She's still unable to understand why Finn calls that small telephone with the television attached to it a cell phone, but yet at the same time Santana's unable to understand what 'pinned' means…? Her nerves begin to fray and her temper boils. It's just too bad that she doesn't understand how Santana's temper can out-boil hers any day.

"We aren't seeing one another. I'm just visiting his family for the summer." Santana keeps her eyes narrow and she refuses to let Rachel enter her home. Rachel looks at Santana with a small frown, shocked slightly. "I'm not from here, of course."

Santana looks at her and rolls her eyes, smiling a bit. She treats this like a game, and Rachel doesn't like it. "You're from Carmel, right?"

"…Right," Rachel eventually says, having to think about what Finn had told her in the car. She's really going to have to work on this whole 'blending in' concept. Maybe she can find an encyclopedia at the library and research the current time she's been placed in. That is, if libraries even exist anymore. Maybe they don't and everyone just manages to research everything they need to know in some other way, she thinks – although she can't begin to think about how they could possibly manage.

Santana slowly lets Rachel walk into her apartment and out of the hallway, Rachel's eyes wandering the room as she drinks it in. "It's not much," Santana says dishearteningly, closing the door and walking in behind Rachel. "And my parents aren't home yet, so it's not like I live here all alone." She pauses for a moment, running a hand through her hair. "That'll be fun when they get back. Explaining to them why I have a random girl living with us for the next four weeks." Rachel continues to walk into the small living room and Santana stops her, grabbing her by the shoulder and turning her to face her. Rachel looks at her and is surprised, spinning around with her hands resting against her lap, her eyes wide and face flushed.

"You don't have any bags with you?" Santana walks up to her so that she nearly corners her between the wall and the couch, hovering over her like some kind of domineering authority figure. Rachel knows that she's not supposed to be intimidated by anything Santana does, but she can't help it. This girl is strikingly beautiful, and looks like she can do some kind of damage to her if she wants to. Rachel racks her brain for some kind of answer as to why she doesn't have any baggage with her. She and Finn had never gone over that, and now she's seriously regretting it.

"Oh, mm-my parents are missionaries," she says quickly, almost forgetting what missionaries do for a living. "We don't b-believe in having that many worldly possessions, so I just m-move from town to town with what I have." Santana looks at her with skewed eyes, Rachel looking at her and selling her the lie as best she can. She can already tell that Santana's a smart girl. Lying to her seems like it might result in a punishment that will follow her around forever.

"Missionaries? So why aren't they with you?"

"I'm originally from Carmel," Rachel says, her mind refreshing. This is back to the track she and Finn had created together, and she's no longer nervous about her web of lies that she has to weave for this girl. "My parents, however, they're over in China. I didn't have anyone to stay with for the summer, and I certainly didn't want to go to China, so I was supposed to stay with your friend, Finn Hudson, but-"

"Wait," Santana interrupts, holding a hand up in front of Rachel's face. She seems somewhat less domineering than before, but Rachel still feels her heart race each time she cranes her neck up to take in a full view of the girl. "Hudson pawned you off to stay with me this entire summer?" She sighs deeply and Rachel can hear the resentment in her voice.

"Oh, don't worry about me. I'm a wonderful houseguest. You won't even know I'm here, I promise. " Rachel begins to think of all of the things she can offer to Santana that will make her like her more. "I could clean your house, and I know how to make a casserole that makes the ladies at my mother's socials absolutely wild, and-"

Santana looks at her again, furrowing her brow on her face. She takes in her outfit and the way she speaks and just shakes her head. _Only Hudson would find some girl this prudish attractive, _she tells herself, not taking her eyes off of Rachel. The smaller girl just looks up at Santana, not knowing whether to be terrified or excited.

"Well, if you're staying with me, I only have a few demands I want to have met," she says, tapping a finger against her lips. Rachel stands up at attention, puffing her chest out slightly to seem more confident. It only takes her one glance at Santana's chest to know that she's not exactly as well-equipped as the prettier girl is.

"First off, we're going to have to take you shopping, I guess. It's not like you can live in that homemaker's dress all summer. I'm surprised Kurt didn't attack you earlier."

Rachel makes a face at Santana. "Who is Kurt?"

"Finn's brother…? You might not have met him. The fruitiest fruit in all of fruit town. I swear, if you licked him, he would taste like a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. Anyway, I'll have to take you shopping." She pauses for a moment, realizing that she might be paying for this. "Did you bring any money with you?"

Rachel shakes her head from side to side. She doesn't understand why she needs so much money; she can just buy a few dresses. "I don't see how we're going to get so many. Aren't there any rations set on how many I can buy?"

Santana looks at her like she's crazy, and Rachel realizes she's made a mistake. _There aren't rations here, _she thinks to herself. Just looking around the room for a quick moment makes her realize that.

"I, I m-mean, don't you have a budget you need to follow?"

"No," Santana says off-handedly. "I'll just charge it. You owe me, though." Rachel nods her head nervously and looks at the other girl. She seems like she's got such a rough skin about her, like the girls Rachel normally doesn't spend time around. She can think of what her parents call the girls like Santana, but she doesn't want to say it aloud, because she knows that it would probably make her heart ache – not hers, but Santana's.

"That, and we're going to get your hair cut," she tells Rachel, noting her permed curls pressed into her hair. "You look like some advertisement for a record player."

"Oh, do you have a record player?" Rachel perks up the moment she hears something she recognizes. Yes, a record player! She should have known that if there was one thing that translated through the years she had left from, music would be the one thing that remained a constant. Santana looks at her again, a bit confused.

"I have a CD player," she corrects her quickly, looking at the stereo system in the corner of the living room. "And my iPod, but no… I don't have a record player." Rachel looks at her, confused. She bites her tongue, knowing that she's not supposed to ask questions. The only person she can ask questions to about why things exist and what they are is Finn, because he's told her that. He doesn't want her asking Santana the wrong thing and having Santana think that she's crazy. It doesn't take much for anyone to make Santana think they're crazy, but Rachel's chances are increased by a million just because of where she's from.

"Oh," Rachel says plainly. "Your hair looks so… flat," she tells Santana. "How do you get it to be so straight?"

"Chemicals," Santana states, grabbing for her purse and car keys on the kitchen counter. "Chemicals, and flat irons, and… most of it isn't even mine. Quinn and I get our hair done together."

Rachel furrows her eyebrows and looks at Santana with a smile. She notes the keys in her hand and realizes that girls can drive here, too. Maybe Santana can teach her how to drive if she ever feels so inclined to do so. "Who's Quinn?"

Santana stifles a laugh and crosses her arms over her chest. "Finn's girlfriend. What, you didn't know who she was?"

"No," Rachel says, thinking back to how she had first met Finn. "But she has a beautiful name."

"Yeah, well she's pretty beautiful, too. I wouldn't get too attached to Finn if I were you."

"I wasn't going to," Rachel says back to Santana, almost in an argumentative tone. "He's pinned himself to Quinn, and I'm happy for him." She feels her stomach kick itself and her mouth dries, tasting bitter. She certainly isn't going to say anything to Santana about Finn. They aren't close like how she is with her friends. How she was with her friends. If she were with her friends back home, she would tell everyone about how she had met the most chivalrous boy in the world when she got here. How he tried to make sure she was comfortable in everything she did so far and how sweet his smile was, and how she felt each time he walked close to her.

"Well, we should get going," Santana says to Rachel, turning the lights off behind her as she swings the front door open. "I want my parents to meet you looking like a normal person."

:.:.:

Finn arrives home just in time to see Kurt's car pull into the driveway. He feels his nerves escape him as Kurt walks into the house with his script in hand, setting it down on the kitchen counter. He makes a face at Finn upon coming into the house, looking at him nervously.

"You alright, Finn? You look a little nervous." Finn shrugs it off and pretends to act like he's fine.

"I'm fine, man, just… I'm just tired, that's all." He feigns a yawn and Kurt walks into the living room, flipping the television set on. Say Yes to the Dress is on, and he sits down and begins watching.

"Really?" Kurt's tone changes and Finn looks at him nervously. He's looking at his phone, and he becomes worried. "Because I just got a text from Santana telling me about some girl you just dropped off at her house?"

Finn feels like he's been hit by a truck. How could Kurt already know about Rachel and how she was here? He feels his stomach churn and he really begins to worry, because he knows that Santana of all people isn't going to hold back when it comes to what she tells Kurt, or anyone for that matter. All of a sudden, it hits him that she may be telling Quinn about all of this. He doesn't want Quinn to know. She'll just think things are different than they are and blow everything out of proportion, and he doesn't need that. Summer is days away, and he doesn't need Quinn taking things the wrong way and feel bad about something that just isn't true.

It isn't true, isn't it?

"Oh, yeah, um, I'm with this shadowing program at school. There's, um, this girl, from Carmel, whose parents are missionaries, so she's staying here. I just didn't want her staying with us, because, um, I figured that it would be weird, you know. With us and everything."

Kurt looks up at Finn from the couch, crossing his legs and giving him a glare. "Well, she could have roomed with me downstairs, or she could have even stayed with Quinn, Finn. Why you chose Santana, of all people-"

"Santana had a spare room," Finn blurts, lying. "Besides, I just figured that Quinn would feel weird, that's all." Finn rubs the back of his neck nervously, desperately wanting to change the subject. "So, um, speaking of Quinn, how did your guys' rehearsal go?"

"Fine," Kurt says, turning the volume down on the TV. "I'm worried for Quinn, though. She's beginning to doubt herself, and, quite frankly, she's right. There's no way she can carry the weight of a show like _West Side Story _on her shoulders with her airy voice and less than energetic delivery of the role." He sighs deeply and rolls his eyes. "There's only so much I can tell her that's lies, Finn. Quinn will be a lovely chorus girl, but that's all she'll be."

Finn doesn't know what to tell Kurt. He knows just how badly Quinn wants to play the lead in the musical – she wants what every other girl wants that's an actress. She wants her chance to show everyone how great she is, and I think she deserves it, don't you?"

Kurt sighs, looking over at Finn disdainfully. They both know how Kurt and the rest of the student body perceives Quinn Fabray. She's not a nice girl, but it doesn't help that her moments of kindness are only shown in secret to Finn and Kurt on occasion. Not even Santana has shown a liking to her lately, which is upsetting considering the girls have been close since elementary school. Finn knows that he's supposed to support her and everything, but it doesn't help when she's known as some kind of Dragon Lady throughout the school.

"The way I see it, if she gets what she wants, she's out of everyone's hair," Finn tells Kurt quietly. Kurt responds with an eye roll, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I don't want to tell her she can't do it, Finn. I don't want to turn into the way Santana is for her." He sighs and mumbles something to himself incoherently, looking at the television screen and making a face at the chartreuse bridesmaid dress one of the girls has picked out for the lineup. "She just needs your support right now, okay? And I don't think spending time around this girl from Carmel is going to make Quinn any happier."

Finn shoves his hands in his pockets and looks at Kurt, sitting on the couch with is eyes trained on the television set. He knows that he's right. Kurt's always the voice of reason, whether he likes it or not. Maybe spending all of his time around Rachel isn't the greatest idea. He knows that if he does so much as dare talk about the brown-eyed girl that he's grown more fond of as the hours pass in front of Quinn, she'll kill him. She hates it when he talks about movie stars he finds attractive, let alone girls that actually exist to him.

Maybe Rachel's whole existence will have to be a secret. Maybe he can just pretend that he doesn't know about her being harbored at Santana's for the summer – or whenever she plans on leaving.


	4. Don't Make Me Over

She's been looking at everything from the moment they've gotten inside the mall. Santana's shocked at how all Rachel can do is admire and ogle everything that comes in her line of sight, from things on the shelves to garments dangling from the clothing racks in the stores. She was a peculiar girl, and Santana didn't know how to respond to her. It was almost as if Finn had dropped her off at her house without warning, because it wasn't like he had given her much of a warning beforehand. She wasn't expecting Betty Crocker to be dropped off on her doorstep, but she figured that she could have fun with it while it lasted. She's a cardboard cut-out of some Chevrolet commercial, complete with her pink dress and hair and shoes – God, her hideous shoes.

_She should be lucky that I'm taking her to the mall, _Santana thinks as she continues to pull clothes from the racks for Rachel to try on. _It's not like Finn's going to jump on her with that whole Easy Bake Oven look going for her._

"I like this one," Rachel finally says, finding a cardigan that she pulls from the rack. It only takes Santana one glance to tell that it's absolutely hideous.

"Yeah, if you're into looking like a candy cane." The red and white alternating stripes on the cardigan seem to bring a smile to Rachel's face, only causing Santana to give and even more sickened look. The taller of the two girls searches the rack again, fingers deftly falling over a black and lacy number.

"This one," Santana says with a grin. Rachel looks at it, brows furrowed, arms stretched out towards Santana to grab the material. She takes it between her fingers and likes the way it feels, like a doily or like the lace garters she saw once in a shop window when she was sixteen. She could remember begging her mother for them, but had been shot down after her mother had told her they 'weren't lady-like enough."

Rachel makes an indignant face and looks at Santana with a smile. "Fine," she says, trying to sound like she isn't swayed when she in actuality, she wants it more than anything in the world. She wonders if she'll look like one of those beautiful and classy women that walk the streets of New York when she wears it. All dressed in their black dresses and heels that seem to outdo the skyscrapers on the city, all in the different colors of the rainbow. The only thing she would leave out is the fur coat – and she doesn't think that they're glamorous at all.

"Great," Santana tells her, grabbing the dress by the waist and throwing it at Rachel, urging a small squeal out of the small girl. She catches it, however, looking at Santana with a smile. Santana looks around the store and notes a rack of shoes, selecting a pair of patent red platforms and handing them to the girl instead. "Put these on with it," she tells her, Santana's voice turning what sweet. It's not like the girl in insanely horrible. She's been expecting some prude who only wants to wear Amish-style clothing. At least she has good taste outside of the tablecloth she had been wearing when she showed up at her doorstep.

Rachel looks at Santana with a sheepish smile on her face, and Santana arches an eyebrow.

"You need me to find you a dressing room?" Rachel just nods nervously and Santana manages a small smile, leading the way to the back of the store. She's sure that whatever kind of relationship this girl has with Finn is going to explode once he sees her dressed in the outfit she's got picked out for her. It's not like she's an ugly girl; she's got beautiful hair (it'll look even better once they stop by the salon and she gets rid of whatever kind of perm she's got going on), and these eyes that are huge and seem to sparkle whenever she sees something. It makes Santana wonder just how removed missionaries are removed from the world. She finds the girl a changing room and waits outside the door, telling her that she'll be sure no one will come in to see her.

It surprises her when Rachel's the one who wants to start conversation from behind the door.

"So, um, Santana, what is it you do for fun around here? I certainly don't want to spend my entire summer just sitting at your house." Santana makes a face so that Rachel can't see it from behind the door, throwing her hands up in exasperation. She can't understand this girl. She's pretty sure no one can understand this girl.

"Oh, nothing," she tells her, leaning against the door to the changing room so that Rachel can hear her more clearly. "I mean, it's summer. My parents keep on telling me that I need to start applying for colleges this summer, but I'm not even sure what I want to go to school for yet. It's not like it matters right now."

"Of course it matters," Rachel exclaims from behind the door, finally managing the zipper on her own dress, slipping it down her shoulders and having it fall around her ankles. She remembers that she's a year older than all of these people – she's eighteen, they're all seventeen. Well, except for Finn. He's eighteen, just like her. "College is important. You get to learn so many things about so many different parts of the world… and it's such a bargain when it comes to what you're getting for your education." Rachel had never gone to college when she truly was eighteen. She had chosen to fly to California, instead – a different story all on its own.

Santana scoffs, not able to believe what she's hearing. "Well, I don't know about you, Princess, but a college education just doesn't cost whatever my pocket change is for the day. My parents have been saving for college since the day they found out they were pregnant with me, and we still don't have enough. I'll be lucky enough if I get to go to Lima Community College."

Rachel frowns a bit to herself, slowly taking her new black dress off of its hanger and unzipping it. She's still wearing her slip from her own dress, and she wonders if it won't look right underneath the new dress Santana's chosen for her. It doesn't look like Santana's wearing a slip, anyway. She slowly removes it and is standing in front of the mirror in the dressing room stark naked, cheeks flushing red as she embarrasses herself.

"I'm sorry schooling costs so much money for you," she says sweetly, dressing herself as quickly as she can. Rachel doesn't understand why everything in this day and age revolves around money. All Santana's talked about since the two met each other is how much all of this is going to cost, and that she's more than willing to charge it – a novelty she still doesn't understand completely, but isn't willing to ask about. "Is there any way you could get your mind off of it, though? I know that in-" she stops herself, realizing that she can't talk about her past. Her past was sixty-nine years ago, and Santana's is now. A lot must have changed in sixty-nine years.

"What I was going to say, was, um, my g-grandparents, they used to live here, in Lima, and they would tell me that they would go to the end of the year social each year after school ended. It's an idea, I thought, but if they still don't happen, then-"

"No, they do," Santana says, thinking to herself. She laughs lightly to herself for a moment, knowing that her idea of the 'end of year social' and Rachel's are completely different. "I just think that they've changed a bit since your grandparents went to them, that's all." Rachel slowly opens the door and jars Santana a bit, causing her to step back and look at her as she walks out.

"Jesus Christ," Santana exclaims, drinking in the image of what used to be a homemaker in the making into what she's turned her into. "You look gorgeous, Rachel."

Rachel giggles to herself and looks down at her feet, stumbling around in her heels a bit. They're higher than anything else she's even walked in, but she doesn't care. She doesn't think she looks like a street walker – but she does feel awfully beautiful.

"We're going to buy this and get your hair done," Santana says, sending Rachel back into the changing room. "While you're getting your hair cut, I'll find other things for you, okay?"

The girls smile at each other and Rachel does as she's told, excited to know what Santana's going to do with her hair. Maybe it's going to look at straight and as sleek as the way Santana wears her hair – which excites Rachel behind belief.

By the time Santana drops Rachel off at the mall's salon and returns back to browsing the racks of clothes throughout the building, she doesn't hesitate to buy the girl her candy cane cardigan that she's wanted so badly. She deserves it.

:.:.:

Quinn has kicked Kurt out of his own house, and is lying on the couch with her legs in Finn's lap, the both of them paging through the TV channels together. Finn rests his hands on her legs and he smiles at her, looking down at his phone as Quinn tries to decide on something to watch.

"Hey," he exclaims, his phone lighting up with a text message. It's from Santana. Quinn turns to him, her smile intact.

**I'm taking your pipsqueak out to a movie tonight with Brittany. You guys should come with.**

"You want to go to a movie tonight?" Quinn sighs a bit.

"What movie?"

Finn doesn't know what to answer her. Knowing Santana, she's planning on taking Rachel to a midnight showing of The Human Centipede just to scare her, so he decides that he's going to have to at least bring Kurt along for the ride to knock sense into Santana. For some reason, she listens to him.

"I don't know, but Santana asked me to go tonight with Brittany, and probably Kurt." He sighs, looking at Quinn with a smile as she smiles back at him. "And you know, I might ask Puck to come or something, it all depends." Finn isn't sure if Rachel should meet Puck just yet. He's sure Santana's already dressed her in one of her skank-tastic outfits and redone her hair, causing Puck to objectify her directly to her face. He wonders if Rachel's ever faced objectification and ogling like that before – he's sure that she will, since she's so beautiful, but he wonders if she had back when she was alive. Not that she isn't alive now. He still doesn't know whether or not she is. She can't be a ghost is Santana and everyone else is able to see her, so she's alive, more likely than not.

"What depends?" Quinn asks, arching an eyebrow. She looks at Finn almost accusingly, her glare sending a chill down his spine. "What, are you guys not talking to one another anymore?"

"No," Finn says quickly, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's just, Santana met this new girl, and I'm afraid that Puck's going to like, hit on her or something. She's not used to be treated like that."

Quinn laughs a bit to herself, bringing herself closer to Finn on the couch. "Well, I think she'll be just fine," she says sweetly, pressing a kiss to Finn's cheek. "Besides, everyone's got to get used to it at some point. Maybe this girl has the brains to tell him what a pig he is." Quinn's comment causes Finn to laugh a bit, taking her by the hand and the two standing, Quinn walking over to turn off the television set.

"So we'll go, then?"

"Of course," Quinn says, smiling brightly. "I want to meet this… new girl."

:.:.:

It seems like everyone and his best friend is going to this movie Santana's told Finn about. He and Quinn show up first, Finn buying a bucket of popcorn and a soda to share with Quinn, but she just waves him off, saying she doesn't want any.

"It won't fit in with the diet I'm on," she tells him plainly. "Sue's made the uniforms for the Cheerios even smaller this year. Like she's trying to breed us to be smaller." Finn laughs a bit and holds Quinn close, sitting down on the bench in the hall of the movie theatre, right outside of their room. He munches on the popcorn and it isn't long until he notices Santana turn the corner, walking with Brittany in hand.

"Well, if isn't the Dragon Queen and the Green Giant," Santana says almost too loudly, Brittany swinging their hands. "I didn't think you were going to turn this into a date night, but I guess you guys can always just sit in the back by yourselves." Santana and Quinn look at each other, sharing the same kind of smile, Brittany joining them by the time all three girls are standing with each other. They're the closest of friends, and they always have been.

Finn looks at Santana, beginning to look worried. "Where's Rachel?"

"Oh, she's coming," Santana says offhandedly, waving a hand in the air. "She was fascinated by how the automatic doors worked." The Latina snickers and Finn can see Quinn begin to make a confused face, but he doesn't stay long enough to see what she has to say about it. He sets his drink down on the bench he's been sitting on and walks towards the front doors of the movie theatre. At first he's afraid that he won't be able to find her through the mess of people that crowd the main lobby, but one glance towards the front doors, and he can see her.

One look and Finn's able to see the newly scantily clad girl walking through the two sets of doors that continue to open and close for her. Finn spots her ankles shaking as she tries to balance in her heels and figures that they belong to Santana, Rachel's feet looking too small in them. The high school boy in him looks at the image of Rachel in one of Santana's selections and he practically starts to drool, not able to understand how the girl he had seen only hours ago in a flouncy pink dress that made her look like Lucille Ball is now standing in front of him, almost looking like she could be one of those girls that waves the flags at Nascar events. Just by looking at her from further away makes him wonder how he's going to get through the movie, thinking about her and knowing what she looks like. This has been one of the longest days of his entire life.

"Finn!" She cries, her attention going away from the automatic doors and directing it towards Finn, walking up to him carefully. She doesn't want to run to him; afraid that she'll trip in the shoes that Santana has given her to wear. She likes them, but they look so much different than the heels her mother would wear. Spiky heels and bright colors and platforms on the bottom that make her legs look much longer when she looks in the floor-length mirror in Santana's room. "I was so excited when Santana told me that you were coming to see a movie tonight! Do you think I can sit next to you?"

Finn can't breathe, let alone find the right words to tell Rachel. Santana's turned her into almost a carbon copy of herself, her slinky black dress rimmed with the black lace making her boobs look amazing, her waist smaller than ever and her skin almost looks like caramel, compared to the black of her dress and red of her heels. Her dark hair has been cut and doesn't look the way it did when he had seen her that morning; now ending at her shoulders and looking smooth and silky, probably Santana's work too. She has bangs now that fringe her eyes, her makeup dark and dramatic with painted eyes and lips.

She doesn't look like how he feels she wants to look. She looks like Santana.

"You look very nice tonight," he tells her, not wanting to tell her any different. It's not like she looks horrible. She's any guys' wet dream in heels. He's worried as to what Puck will say about her when he shows up. And Quinn. One look at Rachel with that charming grin on her face as she looks at him and Quinn will rip all of her hair out.

"Did you see the doors?" Rachel asks Finn, eyes wide. "Do they always just open and close like that? It defeats the purpose of having a boy hold a door open for a girl, don't you think?"

Finn laughs at her a bit, and offers her his hand. "Yeah, they just kind of open and close for you, just like that." She looks so much more beautiful without all of the eye makeup that Santana's put on her. Now she looks like she's coming to the movies because she's on her break from working at the strip club down the street. He misses the loveliness of how she had looked earlier that day.

"I'll always hold a door open for you, though." Rachel giggles sweetly and takes his hand, walking with him through the lobby of the movie theatre. It's rather big, with two floors and a large concession booth at the back of the main room. "Let's go. I want you to meet everyone."

:.:.:

By the time Finn turns the corner with Rachel, Kurt and Puck are both there, Kurt talking to Brittany about something while Puck leans against the wall, talking up Quinn. Kurt and Puck are both there, Kurt talking to Brittany about something while Puck leans against the wall, talking up Quinn. He nearly drops everything when he notices the girl on Finn's arm, leaving Quinn behind on the bench.

"Hudson? You've got a new girlfriend?" He eyes Rachel hungrily and Finn looks at him angrily.

"No, um, this is… this is Rachel, guys." He announces it to the whole group of them, watching Quinn's eyes narrow, her arms crossing over her chest. "She's from Carmel. She's going to be staying with Santana for the summer." Puck continues to look at her like she's some kind of piece of meat, Rachel still not very aware of his leering. Kurt looks at Finn suspiciously, looking over to Quinn as he sits next to her on the bench.

"Did you know Finn had a new friend?" He whispers, Quinn still upset.

"No," she grinds her teeth. "And I certainly wasn't expecting her to be here tonight."

"I just wanted to thank you all for letting me come to the movies with you tonight," Rachel announces, not bothering to detach herself from Finn. "After I met Finn and Santana, I thought that it would be just as important to meet the rest of their friends. I'm afraid you'll have to go through all of your names so I can remember you, of course. I wouldn't want to call one of you by the wrong name!"

"Well isn't that fucking charming," Quinn hisses under her breath, Kurt snickering a bit to himself. "A skank that has an extensive vocabulary. Perfect. Someone should tell her that this is a movie theatre, not a peep show."

"I'm Brittany," the blonde pipes from next to Santana, raising her hand a bit. "And I think it's really cool that you're staying with Santana. You should definitely be on Fondue for Two with me and Lord Tubbington. I'd love to interview you."

"Kurt," he says curtly, staring her up and down. "And I don't know if Santana influenced how you're dressing tonight or not, but I think that we'll be spending a lot of time finding what clothes better suit you than… well, what you're wearing." Santana shoots Kurt a look and Rachel smiles proudly, running her hands against her dress.

"Well, I like this one," she says, causing Finn's heart to sink a bit. He thought she was above dressing like a stripper. Maybe Santana convinced her she looked gorgeous in it – because she does, after all.

"The movie's going to start soon," Quinn says, picking up the tub of popcorn and the drink she plans on sharing with Finn. We should probably go and find out who's sitting next to who, hmm? I'm sure we can all introduce ourselves to you later tonight."

Finn looks at Quinn and becomes slightly scared as he watches her, noticing how angry she is. "Right," he says, letting go of Rachel's hand and rushing over to the blonde, taking the popcorn and drink in his hand. "Um, we should probably go. Rachel, you can… you can sit with Kurt, okay?"

"I'll sit on the other side, then," Puck says, walking over to stand next to Rachel and take her by the hand for a moment. "Puck," he tells her proudly, walking her behind the rest of the group that's already started going into the theatre. "Don't listen to what Kurt says. I think you look to die for tonight." Rachel blushes and giggles a bit, taking Puck by the hand and walks with him, still stumbling around awkwardly in her heels.

Finn looks over his shoulder, Quinn's hand in his, only to spot Rachel giggling over something Puck's telling her. He feels his heart sink in his chest, not bothering to look down at Quinn as they enter the theatre. Rachel deserves much better than Puck for a boyfriend – or any kind of relationship she decides to establish while she's here, for that matter.

"She's pretty," Quinn quips, not looking at Finn. She sees him staring back behind him out of the corner of her eye and suppresses an eye roll. "Thank God she's staying with Santana instead of you, right?"

"R-right," Finn stammers, looking back down at Quinn. He's afraid for her, though. He doesn't want Rachel to end up with someone horrible like Puck. She deserves much better than that.


	5. Culture Shock

**Hey guys! Sorry updates have been taking so long, but I've just finished up my first year of college and I've been pretty busy with finals and all. I'm going back home in a few weeks where I'll have all of the time in the world to write, but this story has definitely been put on the back burner for the past few days. I promise that updates will go back to being about once every week now that school's over! Until then, I hope you enjoy this update! I'm really excited for this story, as I hope you are as well. :) **

He feels like he's let himself down. Such a buildup came with brining her to the movie theatre, but now Finn just feels like he's set her up for failure. It's bad enough that he has her staying with Santana and her horrible influence to corrupt someone as sweet as her, but now Puck's been thrown into the mix. The worst possible person for Rachel to spend her time with, and she's sitting next to him. In a dark movie theatre. With her hand in his. It's enough to make Finn feel sick to his stomach.

Rachel's so enthralled by the entire movie; eyes wide behind her 3D glasses and jaw slack the entire time. They've gone to see _The Avengers,_ something they decided they would all agree upon. It wouldn't matter, anyway. Quinn would be on her phone the entire time and Santana and Brittany would start making out halfway through the movie, leaving Kurt to sulk off in his own little world of self-pity. Normally it's just him left watching the movies when they all go out like this, and his theory still holds true tonight. Finn's watching the movie screen and can't help but gasp a bit when he sees the Hulk throw a car into a building or when all of the Avengers are finally grouped together, standing with one another and preparing to take on whatever comes their way together. He's always been a bit of a comic book geek, and he doesn't mind – it's Quinn that cares. She's all concerned about image and how it will affect her in the long run. Apparently being an avid reader of _Iron Man_ comics doesn't shed a good light on her in the eyes of the student body.

He loves how Rachel seems to be so interested in the entire thing, like she's never seen anything like it before – and then it dawns on him that she hasn't. The 3D effects and the sound and all of the special effects of buildings exploding and cars flying across city streets must look like something out of a dream (a rather morbid dream) to Rachel. It makes Finn wonder what kind of movies the 1940's had that would be considered anything like _The Avengers. _Maybe the really old version of _King Kong. _Maybe. It makes him want to sit next to her in the theatre that much more. Quinn isn't much fun to spend time around when the situation doesn't involve her. She always diverts back to her phone or begins picking at her nails. Rachel's fun and lively; bubbly and exuberant.

Finn looks at her for a second that feels like an hour, spotting Puck wrap his arm over her shoulders and pull her close. An explosion just happened on screen and she's surprised; having jumped in her seat a bit. It makes Finn want to punch a hole in a wall. She deserves better than his arm around her shoulders.

:.:.:

"That was so amazing, wasn't it?" Rachel's walking out of the movie theatre and into the lobby, pulling Puck with her by the hand. For some reason she's managed to find her way out of the enormous Imax theatre and back into the lobby, for which Finn is a bit surprised. Maybe she just has an excelled sense of direction. "All of the costumes on the superheroes and the fires and the cars? And the skyscrapers!" She turns to Kurt, who walks out behind her looking perturbed as he tosses his half-eaten tub of popcorn into the nearest trash can. "Have you ever seen skyscrapers that are so big?"

"Yes," Kurt says, his voice short. Finn can tell that his patience has run thin for Rachel. She's strong coffee, at least to 21st century teens. She's probably wonderful in her own circle of friends back from where she's from. "What, have you never seen a skyscraper before? They're all over Ohio. Well, Cleveland, at least." Rachel feels Puck pull at her arm a bit as the rest of the group filters into the lobby, Brittany adjusting her skirt back to the way it was before Santana had stuck her hand up it right before the credits started. They all stand in a pod, Rachel smiling and overjoyed as she clutches to her glasses. The rest have all thrown them back into the recycling bin near the door.

"Of course I have," she says, almost proudly. "In New York, of course. They're beautiful and tall and it's obvious why they call them skyscrapers. They look like they could touch the clouds." She sighs wistfully a bit, pulling her hand from Puck's and painting a picture with her hands. "When I was a little girl, I remember hearing them talk about the Empire State Building being built – it was going to be the tallest building ever, and all I ever wanted to do was to go and see it. I finally did, too."

It's too late by the time Finn realizes what she's saying. He's been busy listening to her describe how much she loves all of the skyscrapers in New York, and before he knows it, she's blowing her cover.

"Rachel!" He exclaims, throwing his arm over her shoulder awkwardly and silencing her. "So, um, what did you think of the movie?" Rachel looks up at Finn with a sheepish smile, confused a bit.

"But I was just talking about how I-" Finn gives her a pinch on the shoulder and her face pinches together for a second, finally realizing what she'd done wrong. "_Oh,_" she says, eyebrows arching and pulling away from Finn. "Yes, the movie… the movie was fantastic, really. I just don't understand how they made everything look so lifelike! I felt like I was right there with all of them… what are they called again?"

"The Avengers," Finn corrects her with a small smile. His gazing has gone on for too long. It doesn't take long for Quinn to notice and interrupt his daydream.

"They're special effects," she says bluntly, finally drawing her eyes up from her phone. "It isn't anything special, really. You've never seen a movie with special effects before?" Rachel shakes her head from side to side, shrugging slightly.

"No," she says, sounding like a little kid. "And never while watching it through these glasses. Who wears sunglasses in a movie theatre?" The group of friends all look at Rachel like she's insane. Santana makes a face and pushes past Kurt, walking towards Rachel.

"What, do they not have 3D movies down on the farm?" She cackles a bit, flashing Rachel a smile. "Finn, is this girl even real? It's like you plucked her out of some Amish town."

"I wear sunglasses all the time," Brittany says proudly. "They increase your street cred. You should wear them too, Rachel."

Finn can't believe this is happening. Only one day with her in town and everyone's already catching on to the fact that she isn't exactly normal. What did that one prince do in the movie where the mermaid washed up on the shore by his castle? He wonders if he can steal any ideas from that movie, to make Rachel seem more like a functioning member of society from 2012 instead of the 40's, or whatever decade she's from.

The mermaid in that movie can't talk, though. All Rachel seems to want to do is talk.

"Oh, goodness, is that another one of those small telephone things?" Rachel spots Quinn's phone in her hand smiles, pushing her hair out of her eyes. She still hasn't completely adjusted to her new haircut. "Finn has one of those, and he showed it to me earlier today – right?" She looks at Finn with a smile, like she's just answered a question correctly on a test. "You showed it to me this morning."

Quinn makes a face and shoves her phone into her purse. "Finn, what is she talking about?" Rachel looks at Quinn and then back to Finn, realizing that she's done something wrong. Quinn's face looks like it's growing red and Rachel begins to fear that she might start yelling at Finn or something else that's horrible, and that's the last thing she needs.

"Hey!" Kurt exclaims quickly, clapping his hands together and walking into the cluster of people. "Why don't we all go out for ice cream, hmm? I hear they have a new flavor at Swensen's now."

"That sounds great, Thumbelina, but I've got other plans," Santana says, taking Brittany by the hand. "Rachel, you can get a ride home with Puck, okay? Me and Britts have gots to get our mack on." Santana laughs and Brittany giggles along with her, prompting an eye roll from Quinn.

"Rachel, I could always drive you back to Santana's," Finn begins, not wanting her to leave with Puck. She's too naïve and doesn't understand what he'll say to her once he's got her in his car, all by herself. "It's not a problem, really-"

"Oh, Finn, it's fine." Rachel walks over to him and tips her head up to look him in the eyes, their height difference still played with Rachel in her heels that she's borrowing from Santana. "I think I can take one ride in a car that isn't yours. Besides, you've got Quinn with you and there's still plenty of time to paint the town red with her! You wouldn't want me to come along with you." He doesn't want her to leave with him, though. The more time she spends with Puck, the easier it will be for her to fall for him.

Quinn smiles off-handedly and takes Finn by the hand. "She's right, baby. She hasn't even spent that much time with Puck yet. I think it's time she get to know him. She might as well, right?" Rachel turns her head over her shoulder to flash a smile at Puck, who's looking at her with the same eyes he had when she had first walked into the movie theatre. Lustful and full of feelings Finn doesn't want anyone to feel for her.

"Well, we better leave then," Puck says as he walks up to Rachel, slinking an arm around her waist and causing her to giggle a bit. "You don't want to see Quinn when she's angry. It's scary stuff." The two are whisked away and Finn feels his heart begin to sink, Quinn swinging his hand by her side.

It doesn't help that Rachel turns over her shoulder and mouths out the words 'Bye, Finn' with a little wave before walking out the automatic doors. Finn can see her stopping with Puck just outside and looking up at the automatic doors once more, still perplexed by how they work and why they don't just stay open. He smiles and Santana looks at him, confused.

"See you later, Hudson," she says, beginning to walk away with Brittany in tow. "Don't trip over the tongue that's hanging out of your mouth on the way out."

:.:.:

Brittany's already left, and Santana's left on the couch by herself, watching a rerun of some cartoon. She isn't even quite sure what it is herself; she's too busy staring at her Facebook page. She's been waiting to see what Quinn's status will be for the night, hoping it regards Rachel in some way. It didn't take a genius to realize that Quinn was completely jealous of whatever Rachel had. Something which Santana couldn't understand, since she had already heard the whole story from Rachel about how she had Finn would never be anything more than "platonic friends." Although, Santana couldn't help herself but think about how hot Finn probably thought she was tonight. Hell, even she thought Rachel looked hot tonight. Finn had something for her, whatever it was, and he had it hard. Quinn would have a tough time beating out the pipsqueak from Carmel, or wherever she was supposed to be from if she wanted to still be attached to him come September.

Santana had just begun changing the channels on the TV when she heard a knock at the door. She wasn't expecting Rachel to be home as early as she was. Her whole idea of sending her home with Puck was so they could wait in the parking lot of her building for at least fifteen minutes, Puck trying to negotiate making out with her and/or getting to second base with her before Brittany had left. She laughs a bit to herself, realizing that Rachel had probably left Puck with blue balls for the night, and makes her way over to the door.

Looking through the peephole, she sees Rachel standing there, arms crossed over her chest. She looks like she's been crying, almost, and Santana rolls her eyes and sighs, preparing for whatever she intended to spew by the time she walks into the living room.

"Well, if it isn't the sight for sore eyes," Santana says, holding the door open for Rachel as she comes inside. Her mascara has just begun to run and her eyes are tinted a light shade of red, her cheeks flushed. She looks like she's been crying. "Hey," Santana says, not getting a response. "Rachel. How was your ride home?"

Rachel stumbles over to the couch in her heels, pulling them off of her tired feet by the time she's sat down. "I don't understand why you all are friends with that… what was his name? Chuck?"

"Puck," Santana corrects her, standing in front of her with arms crossed over her chest. "What happened?"

"He tried to kiss me!" Rachel scoffs and crosses her arms over her chest, looking like a pouting twelve year old on the couch. Santana can't help but stifle a laugh as she looks at her, listening to the rest of her story. "He tried to kiss and he put his hand on my knee! Is that a regular custom for you?" Santana begins to laugh in full force now, giggling and sitting down next to Rachel.

"It is for Puck," she says, reclining on a couch a bit. "Well, and most guys… are you sure you're from around here?" Rachel feels her face turn red. She's already thrown Finn under the bus so many times tonight, and she doesn't need to do it again.

"I guess… I guess I just have different values, that's all. Not to say that you're wrong, Santana. I just…" Rachel's voice trails off, frustration filling her to the brim. "I've just never had someone make such strong advances on me like that before." She doesn't understand how a boy is able to be so forward with anyone, particularly her. Santana and Brittany and Quinn all look stunning, and she's pretty enough, she knows. Her mother's always called her beautiful, but that's what a mother is supposed to do. But why would a boy want to slide his hand up her skirt after meeting her for the first time? Don't they have some kind of moral compass that points in the wrong direction when an upstanding girl as herself chooses not to kiss a boy on the first date?

Santana looks at Rachel, eyebrows knit together. "Look, I don't want to sound like a bitch or anything, but Rachel, you're kind of a prude." Rachel places a hand against her chest, looking insulted. "I mean, it's not necessarily a bad thing, just… if Puck wanted to get into your pants, you totally should have let him. Or at least let him grab one of your boobs or something." She looks at Rachel. She's never met someone so… different before. Normally Santana spends her time teasing people like Rachel, but the girl sitting across from her on the couch seems different. Like she has a reason as to why she acts the way she does.

"I would never let him do anything of the sort!" Rachel stands up from the couch and paces around for a moment, lost in her thoughts. "I'd just like to take a shower and go to bed, if you don't mind. I've had enough for the evening and I'd really just prefer to end it now." Santana can't believe the way this girl talks. It's like she's straight out of a movie or a book, the way she talks and acts.

"Whatever you say, cream puff," Santana says, waving her hand in the air. "You're sleeping with me, in my bedroom. We don't have any spare rooms. The bathroom's right across the hall from my room. You can find towels on your own." Rachel walks off in a huff, Santana returning back to her computer. Quinn's posted her Facebook status already, and she snickers a bit to herself before hearing Rachel shut the bathroom door behind her.

:.:.:

Rachel can't believe the nerve of some people here. Is this how it's supposed to be? Is she supposed to let any boy she meets completely have his way with her – and on the first date, too? It's not how she's been raised. She hopes that this is only something that's plagued Santana and Puck of this generation. Finn's never treated her like that. Then again, she's only known Finn for a day. For all she knows, that's how he treats Quinn.

She walks out of the bathroom, dressed in a robe that she's found hanging on the back of Santana's bathroom door and walks back into the living room, Santana still sitting on the couch and looking into that small screen sitting on her lap. She wants to ask what it is, but she remembers that she can't ask anyone questions like that unless they're directed at Finn. She's come so close to blowing her cover tonight multiple times that Rachel doesn't even want to open her mouth with the fear that she might make herself sound crazy. Her and Finn, really. She dries her hair with a towel and looks at Santana, who's turned her head to look back up at her.

"Was that you singing in the shower?" Rachel looks at Santana and feels almost guilty for a moment, afraid she's done something wrong.

"Yes," she confesses sheepishly. "But I don't have to anymore, if you want…"

"No," Santana interrupts, closing her laptop and standing up. She reaches for the remote and turns off the television. "It's just… your voice is really pretty. Not as great as mine, but it's nice." She gives Rachel a once over, noticing that she's dressed in her bathrobe – but she'll let it slide. Rachel already seems so on edge from their night at the movies that Santana decides not to make a mountain out of a molehill. "You should definitely audition for _West Side Story _with us this summer. Kurt and I are auditioning, and so is Quinn." She watches Rachel's eyes glaze over a bit with disdain. "Finn's going to be playing his drums for the pit orchestra. Every year they put one on and like, everyone in Northwestern Ohio comes to see them. You'd be really good."

Rachel doesn't know what _West Side Story _is, but she figures it's a musical. Again, she doesn't ask. Maybe she'll have to start keeping a list of questions to ask Finn the next time she sees him. "It's a musical, right?" She smiles a bit to herself. She loved singing back when she was in her prime. She would sing for her mother, her father – anyone that was willing to listen, really. She always wanted to sing in one of the movies she was cast in, or even on a big, Broadway stage – and maybe being in this show would be the next best thing to it.

That, and she would get to sing with Finn right there with her, every step of the way.

"That, and you would blow everyone out of the water for the lead," Santana adds, walking a circle around Rachel. "Quinn would be devastated." Rachel feels her heart swell a bit. She doesn't see what Finn sees in Quinn. Sure, she's pretty – really pretty, but she seems too concerned with that small telephone that everyone seems to be carrying around and how she looks than her relationship with Finn. Rachel doesn't understand why Finn spends his time around her. He could be so much better off with a girl that would actually care for him.

"R-really?" She stammers, her thoughts not completely forming before she begins speaking. Maybe she can win Finn over this way.

"Really. I'd even help you prepare for your audition, if you wanted." Santana smiles, resting her hands on Rachel's shoulders and looking at her. "You'd be the best thing since Barbra Streisand."

"Who?" Rachel asks. She has no clue who Santana's talking about.

"Never mind," Santana grumbles, beginning to make her way upstairs. "You're going to be amazing."


	6. Competition

Weeks pass by. The more time that she spends here, the more she wants to return home – wherever home is. Is home just back to heaven again, or is home back to when she was eighteen, when she was happy? Rachel feels like she'll never know anymore. All she knows is that she's here with a purpose, and unless she doesn't know what that purpose is, then who is she to stay and spend her time with Finn and Santana and the rest of his friends, not knowing why she's here. Maybe she'll be stuck here forever. Maybe there isn't really a point for her to be here and she's just going to be stuck, not knowing about what happened in the past sixty years. It terrifies her, really. Sometimes she just wants to see if she can run into a television set and see if she makes it back to where she's from, as long as one of the correct movies is playing. She thinks that it would work almost like a time machine, if she used all of her might and charged into the television set.

She talks about trying it one day while she's at Finn's house. Spending time with him has also turned into quite the secret – his parents can't know when she's there, and if they do, she has to be in the living room, with all of the doors open and them at a close hearing range. Ever since Kurt had spilled the beans to his parents, Rachel isn't invited over often to spend private time with Finn – and God, how she wants it. She spends most of her time with Santana and her parents, who aren't horrible, they just spend a lot of time arguing with each other in Spanish. Santana's mother thinks Rachel is very beautiful and offers the girls martinis between when she gets home from work and begins cooking dinner, and Rachel refuses. How she would ever drink alcohol along with her underage daughter is beyond her.

Finn just tells her that everything's going to be alright, and she tries her hardest to believe him. She wants to badly to go back, but she knows she can't. Rachel wonders if there's anything holding her back to stay here, in 2012 – and it doesn't take her long to realize what it is. The more time she spends around Finn, the more she realizes that he's one of the most wonderful people she's ever met. He's got a smile that lights up whatever room he goes into, and he's so tall, taller than anyone else she's ever met. He often jokes around and treats Rachel like she's an arm rest, propping his elbow up on her head when she stands next to him which causes her to giggle wildly, smiling up at him and telling him that she's not as short when she wears the shoes that Santana lends her, but then Finn just shrugs and tells her that she's prettier when she wears the shoes Kurt's bought for her instead. Kurt went out and bought Rachel a practically new wardrobe; attacking the thrift store one afternoon with her and another girl Rachel's managed to meet while staying. She too has a beautiful voice and looks like she could rival Ella Fitzgerald with how stunning she is. Rachel always giggles when she hears her name because it reminds her of the car she's named after, and Mercedes just laughs with her and tells her that she's a sweet girl. Kurt's found all of these darling dresses that he tells her are vintage, but Rachel knows that they aren't. They're the same kinds of dresses she used to wear, and she feels much more comfortable in them than the dress Santana had bought for her. Santana still decides to buy her all of the sweaters with cats on them that she can find, though.

It seems as though the entire community has embraced her completely. Well, the entire community besides Quinn. The blonde ice queen still shoots her dirty looks when she joins Finn and her on dates, normally latched onto Kurt's arm. Kurt's already told Rachel that he's far more interested in dating boys than girls, to which Rachel smiles at and pats him on the arm. She likes him a lot, and she enjoys spending time with him. He does, however, like everyone else, seem so intent on winning the role he wants in the community theatre production of _West Side Story_, that she doesn't know if he's liking her because she's her, or because he wants to use her to get ahead in some strange way. He does, however, tell her that she'd make a marvelous Maria. Who Maria is, Rachel doesn't know, but she doesn't care. She'll audition and hope for the best, and whatever the results will be, will be.

:.:.:

"I'm just so sick of her," Quinn says, teeth gritting together as her hands roll up into fists. Brittany looks at her, half shocked and half scared to death. When Quinn Fabray starts to get angry, it isn't anything pretty. "It's not even her with Finn. She's just so… so damn happy all of the time! It's like she's from a fucking cereal commercial. Honestly, who acts like that?" Santana snickers a bit to herself before realizing that Quinn could probably commit a murder in cold blood when she's like this, so she chooses to stop. Not that she couldn't take the blonde, though.

"I like her," she says confidently, looking down at her nails. "I think you're just jealous because your boyfriend totally wants to bang her." If there's one thing Santana is, it's honest. "I mean, you see how he gets whenever Puck's around her or she even starts talking to some stranger at Breadstix. It's ridiculous." Quinn rolls her eyes and continues pacing around the room, grunting something under her breath that either girls are able to understand.

"Well, maybe I'll just have to let her learn the hard way," she says, her voice already sounding malicious and conniving. "I'll teach that precious little Mary Sunshine that the world isn't sunshine and roses, won't it?" Brittany looks at Santana, worried.

"I don't know, Quinn. I kind of like her too. She taught me how to make this really nice thing for Lord Tubbington that I feed him now… I forget what it's called."

"A casserole," Santana says, correcting her girlfriend. "She makes those for me and my parents every once and a while. They're pretty good."

Quinn rolls her eyes and storms off into another room, groaning. She clearly isn't getting through. Maybe seeing her at auditions will be good enough. Bringing Finn to auditions and rubbing her huge nose in the fact that she'll never be able to have him like she does.

:.:.:

Finn spends a lot of time thinking about Rachel. More than he should, he realizes. He goes out with Quinn and all he thinks about is how Rachel would giggle over the fact that his socks didn't match, and when he and Quinn start making out on the couch in the basement, he puts Rachel in her place, wondering what it would feel like to kiss her and have his arms wrapped around her tiny little waist, pulling her up in his arms and feeling her laugh into his kiss and her nose scrunch up against his – he needs to _stop._

"That Rachel chick flipped a tit the other night," Puck tells him one night, not too far off from the grand movie night the group had gone to together. "I was being all smooth and was trying to lay the moves on her in the car, but then she started hitting me and calling me names and shit. I don't see why I even bothered."

Finn's a bit confused. He would think that Rachel would tell him about anything like that happening to her. "Man, what would you do that for? Haven't you ever heard of being a gentleman?" Puck rolls his eyes and crushes his beer can, attempting to toss it into the garbage can.

"I don't know, man. She's hot, and that's about all I thought about. It's not like I tried to rip her clothes off or anything. All I wanted to do was kiss her." Finn laughs a bit to himself, already picturing Rachel swatting at him and whimpering something as she stumbled out of his car. She's too adorable for her own good, sometimes. "I mean, c'mon. It's not like you've ever thought about her. She lives with you, doesn't she?" Puck sighs and reclines back in his chair a bit more. "If she was living in my house, I would be all over her in a second."

"She's living with Santana," Finn says, correcting him. "Besides, I'm dating Quinn, man."

"And?" Puck rolls his eyes. "She doesn't have to know. Besides, this girl is only here for what, the summer?" He shakes his head for minute, shrugging a bit. "Easy picking, man."

Finn can't stand Puck objectifying Rachel like this. She deserves more than to be the fantasy of someone as disgusting as Puck. Sure, they're friends, but sometimes he disgusts Finn more than he should. He doesn't want to tell him that he actually does have feelings for Rachel, but his feelings begin to bubble over and before Finn knows it, he can't help it – and now he knows why girls call it word vomit.

"I mean, I've thought about it," he admits, not thinking about what he's saying for a minute. "I've spent so much time around her these past few weeks, and she's so…" Finn finds it hard to find the words to describe Rachel. As far as he's concerned, everything about her is perfect. He loves her laugh, her hair, her smile, her legs. "She's great, I just… I don't want to hurt Quinn. We've been together since sophomore year, y'know? Breaking up with her now would be horrible."

Puck rolls his eyes and stands to grab the remote. "I'm not saying you have to break up with Quinn," he says nonchalantly. "You just have to find a way to get with this Rachel girl you keep on talking about without Quinn knowing." Finn sighs, sipping from his beer.

For once, maybe Puck's idea isn't half bad.

:.:.:

Rachel's learned how to manage her new hairstyle, and the longer she's had it, the more she's grown a liking to it. It's smooth and silky like Santana's, and she loves how she has bangs that she can choose to wear swept off to the side or down to frame her eyes. She and Santana sit up some nights, Santana braiding Rachel's hair while the two watch romantic comedies in the room they share together. What Santana thought would be a chore has ended up blossoming into a lovely friendship, one she secretly wishes wouldn't have to go away when Rachel has to head back to wherever she's from – Carmel, wasn't it?

It's Santana that decides to break the silence one night when she has Rachel's hair in half a fishtail braid around the crown of her head and they're watching _10 Things I Hate About You _one Friday night.

"I know you have something for Hudson," she says casually. "All you ever do is stare at him and giggle at his stupid jokes and puns and gush over how well he plays the drums." Rachel shifts a bit from where she's sitting, afraid to turn around and face Santana. "Look, I'm not telling you to not go after him, but I'm just going to let you know that Quinn's on to you. I mean, I'm not the kind to care about sleeping with someone else's boyfriend, but you, Rach… you've got it more figured out than I do. So, you know, Finn can be yours secretly if you want and I won't say anything, I promise." She stops for a second, looking back down at Rachel's braid and sighs. "Quinn and I haven't exactly been the best of friends lately. But just know that if she ever finds out, she'll kill you. Like, literally _kill _you."

Rachel can feel her heart act like it's trying to burst out of her chest and run away. She never would have guessed that just by looking at Finn in a funny way, Santana would be able to tell that she was harboring an enormous crush on him. "How did you know?" She asks, her skin feeling like it's on fire.

"Please," the Latina says, waving it off. "Ever since that one night at the movie theatre, all you've been able to talk about is how great Finn is. And don't get me wrong, he's fine. If you're into the whole Green Giant-He-Man look." Rachel giggles a bit, tipping her head down into her lap. She feels her face turn red and Santana can spot her in the mirror across the room, which in turn makes her begin to smile. "See, you're blushing. You totally like him, Rachel."

"So what if I do?" She asks, standing. Santana frowns a bit as she watches her braid begin to come loose at the top of her head. "Everyone should like Finn, in my opinion. He's so chivalrous and lovely, Santana." She flops down on the bed and rests her hands in her lap, leaning into Santana with a smile that could light up the entire room. "He tells me that I look beautiful even when I look horrible, and he just seems to care, so much… not like how Puck did that one night. He actually wants to listen to me when I tell him about my past, and Puck just wanted to…" She pauses, looking for the right expression. She's been trying to keep up to date with all of the expressions everyone uses, and she's also been trying to use them herself, in order to seem like she's up to date with everything and could actually be from the 21st century herself. "Puck just wanted to get into my pants." Santana giggles a bit, hearing Rachel try on the expression for size.

"It's true," she says, looking at Rachel with a smile. "The first time Finn and Quinn actually did it, he was all nervous and everything… it was ridiculous. He's going to stay a virgin for life."

Rachel quirks an eyebrow, confused. "He and Quinn… they've already consummated their relationship?" She looks worried, Santana frowning a bit as she sees disappointment wash over Rachel's face.

"Well, yeah," she says, fingering her bed sheets. "They actually went through this one period where they started fucking like rabbits. Jesus, it was crazy." She begins to laugh, thinking back to the spring of their junior year. "This one time, Finn came to school and Quinn started –" Santana stops, hearing Rachel sob almost silently into her hands. "Rach, are you alright? Look, just because they've had sex, doesn't mean anything."

"Yes it does," Rachel whimpers, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "They've already given themselves to each other, Santana." Her tears run down her cheeks and Santana feels her heart waver for the girl. She knows the feeling all too well; it's part of the reason as to why she is the way she is. Santana wasn't born with her heart of stone that everyone says that she has. It's gotten that way over years of heartbreak and her own personal suffrage. "How am I supposed to compete with her? He clearly loves her and not me. I should just stop while I'm ahead."

Santana looks at Rachel and she feels her own emotions stirring, knowing that if she looks at Rachel any longer, she'll start crying herself. "Look, Rachel, it's not…" Santana's voice trails off and she feels herself begin to choke on her words. She can't wrap her head around the idea that Rachel has; thinking that just because two people have had sex that it's like they've made some kind of commitment to each other to stay true forever, until the day they die. _That's the way it used to be, _Santana thinks to herself, casually wiping a stray tear from her eye. _Back when her grandparents fell in love and promised each other that they would wait for the other. _"Rachel, just because they've had sex doesn't mean anything," Santana says, placing a hand on Rachel's back. The brunette looks up from her hands for a second, eyes red and blotchy. "I mean, Finn and Quinn loved each other back then, sure, but Rach, you don't have to worry about them being 'together forever' or whatever." Santana wipes her eyes and again, laughing a bit. "Now stop getting all emotional over everything, okay? You're making me cry." The girls giggle together for a minute, Santana reaching to hold Rachel in an embrace. She places her hands on her shoulders and looks at the girl, seriousness in her eyes.

"Listen to me, Rachel, okay? You're going to win over Finn Hudson if it's the last thing you do, okay?" Rachel looks into Santana's eyes and she nods, both of the girls starting to smile at each other. "You're going to steal him right out from under Quinn's nose and make him yours, alright?" Rachel smiles and Santana pushes a stray lock of hair from Rachel's eyes. "He already has some kind of thing for you, anyway. You can tell."

"You really think so?" Rachel asks, eyes lighting up on her face.

"I know so," Santana says, shaking her head a bit. "Now, why don't we finish your hair, hmm? Then you can try doing mine."

:.:.:

The small hallway in the building of the community theatre is packed to the brim with hopeful auditionees. From the hallway you're able to hear the tinkling of a piano through the walls, the occasional voice belting through and worrying the ones sitting out in the hallway, feet bouncing and sheet music shaking in their hands. Santana sits next to Rachel, Kurt on the other side of her. Rachel sits in the middle, looking at both of them, nervous.

"You'll be fine," Kurt tells her, placing a hand on her knee. She looks lovely; her hair done up in one of Santana's braids and wearing one of the dresses bought for her by Kurt, knees knocking together out of nervousness. Before, she wasn't nervous about these auditions, but upon arriving, Rachel felt a whole new wave of fear wash over her. What if no one likes her? She's been through countless auditions before – she's an actress, truly. She's had people tell her that she's too short or her eyes are too dark or that her nose is too big, and part of her worries that it's what's going to happen when she walks in through the room. A wall of negativity the second she walks in.

"What if they don't like me?" She asks, wringing her hands nervously. "One look at Quinn and they'll cast her. She's perfect."

"Quinn doesn't have the voice you to, Rachel," Kurt reminds her. "You'll sell them the second you belt out your first note." He pats her on the knee and Rachel rests her head on his shoulder. "I promise."

The stage manager pokes her head out of the door, calling Rachel's name. The brunette feels her heart skip a beat and she stands quickly, grabbing her sheet music from her purse. "Okay," she says, fixing her hair nervously. "Do I look alright?" Santana and Kurt shoot each other a look, both smiling at each other.

"Beautiful," Santana says, giving Rachel a smile. "My work is done." Kurt looks at her with a scowl and swats at her.

"And I helped," he pipes, causing Rachel to laugh. She likes watching the two feud over who's made her look better for a specific event. When she goes to Finn's for family dinners, Kurt always prides himself for how great he makes Rachel look when she walks upstairs with him, giggling and asking about who Celine Dion is and why Kurt loves her so much.

"Alright," Rachel says, smoothing down her skirt and shaking out a bit. "Here goes nothing!"

The three smile and Rachel walks off towards the door, Kurt smiling at her before she turns the corner into the doorway. She grins back, feeling better than before. She's glad she's found such great friends in Kurt and Santana. Finn's great, sure, but she's never seen anyone support her as much as Kurt and Santana do. Brittany's great, too. Everyone is, really. She's awfully glad she landed here, with these people. They're pretty nice.

:.:.:

Like clockwork, Quinn opens the door to the small corridor the second Rachel turns into the room. Kurt turns to Santana and makes a face, Santana laughing a bit. She isn't sure how she's supposed to react completely; she and Quinn are still stuck on the awkward grounds of being friends, although she and Brittany snicker plenty about Quinn behind her back.

"Well, if it isn't the Wicked Witch of the West," Kurt whispers, causing Santana to snicker. Walking in behind Quinn is Finn, holding Quinn by the hand and walking in with her. The blonde sits down in the chairs across from Kurt and Santana, crossing her legs and having Finn sit next to her, dumbfounded. Quinn tugs Finn's hand into her lap, placing her own on top of it.

"Hey, Blondie," Santana says, her voice dripping with false friendship. "You look nice. You ready for your big audition?" Quinn sneers at Santana and Kurt a bit before smiling at her and holding Finn by the hand, almost as if she's showing him off to everyone.

"Fine," she deadpans, looking down at her audition form. "I'm sure you guys have tons of work to finish on perfecting your songs, or whatever, so…" Finn looks down at Quinn, unsure as to why she's acting this way. It's not like Quinn's ever dreamed of being a movie star or singing in front of millions. Just recently, when auditions for the musical had been posted on the bulletin board in the music hallway. It was like a spark had gone off when Finn said that he was going to play drums for the pit orchestra. Quinn said that she was going to star in the community musical and everything was going to be perfect during their summer.

Kurt isn't sure if he's supposed to say anything. He isn't even sure if he and Quinn are still friends. He knows that Rachel doesn't like her all too much, so maybe he shouldn't, either. Rachel has an awfully keen eye for who's a good person and who isn't.

He can hear Rachel singing through the walls. Everyone can, actually. It causes Quinn to sit up in her chair along with Finn, only she doesn't wear the same smile that he does. Santana dons a shit eating grin and Kurt smiles happily to himself, giggling a bit.

"Who's that?" Quinn asks, hearing the bright, clarion voice through the walls. "She's good." Only she doesn't say it like she's proud of the fact that some girl is good – better than her, even. Santana and Kurt exchange looks with each other and smile. Finn looks at them, confused.

"I convinced Rachel to audition," Santana says, pride exuding from her voice. Quinn's jaw hangs open slightly, Kurt looking at her knowingly. "I heard her singing in the shower one day and I thought, 'Damn, Santana, this girl has a great voice, you should totally have her try out for the summer musical.' And I did. And she's pretty damn good, isn't she?" Quinn rolls her eyes for a moment, Finn smiling. He can't believe it. Her voice is beautiful, from what he can hear.

"What's she singing?" Quinn asks, genuinely concerned. Finn can feel her nails digging into his hand. She's terrified.

"I chose something I thought would highlight her voice wonderfully," Kurt says proudly. "Since she'll be singing all of the songs from the show at her callback, I chose the star-making song from the hit musical _Wicked _– Defying Gravity."

"You taught that to her?" Finn asks, smiling. "That's so cool."

"Yeah, great," Quinn grumbles, clutching her sheet music with her audition form. "Just great."

:.:.:

"That was beautiful, baby. Beautiful!" Santana runs up to Rachel as she exits the small room used for auditions. "Perfecta, mi amor." She presses a kiss to Rachel's cheek and causes the brunette to giggle. However, the only thing she can see is Finn, standing a bit further behind. She smiles at him and he smiles back, giving her a small wave. She stands up on her toes to see him and waves back, ready to say something before she sees Quinn walk in front of him. She's here, audition forms in hand, preparing to walk into the room and sing.

"Wish me luck," Rachel hears her say, wrapping her arms over Finn's shoulders and pulling him in for a kiss. But it isn't just a normal kiss. It's an open-mouthed, sloppy, what-should-be-kept-in-public kiss. Finn kisses her back, holding her by the waist, Rachel almost dropping everything she has in her hands to the floor. She feels like her heart's been ripped out of her chest and her mouth goes dry, unable to say anything at all.

Quinn walks away and breezes past Rachel, chipping her shoulder as she walks past her and into the room, the door closing behind her. Rachel can't feel anything anymore. It's like everything's gone numb, and there's nothing she can do about it.

Everything Santana's told her was wrong.


	7. Their Love is History

She's not even excited when she learns about her callback the next week.

No matter how much Santana tries to tell Rachel that everything's going to be alright, the brunette doesn't feel the desire to leave Santana's room, and instead locks herself inside and watches all of the romantic comedies Santana's brought in for her.

Rachel can't understand how Finn can love someone like Quinn Fabray. Ever since the day she met the blonde, Quinn's never seemed like a very nice person. She seems like she's full of hatred and anger for the world, and instead of taking care of it in a healthy manner, she takes it out on the people she likes the least in her life – and in this case, Rachel fits the criteria to be picked on. She has an ice glare and she knows how to make Rachel feel like no one cares about her when she does so much as walk past her, and Rachel doesn't understand how she does it. For someone who could be a lovely girl, she isn't.

It causes her to be afraid of going to see Finn anymore. She used to ask Santana if she would drive her to Finn's and lie and say that she was going to talk to Kurt, blessing every lucky star she was ever born under that Finn and Kurt were stepbrothers. Kurt would style her hair and page through magazines with her, trying to find what color palette looked the best with her complexion, and Rachel would stare at Finn from the dining room table, watching him as he kept his eyes glued to the television set, not sure if he noticed her gazing or not. Sometimes she did; wanting his eyes to catch hers and make her blush wildly and cause him to come over to her and interrupt her dress session with Kurt to talk to her and make that same face every time he was impressed by some nugget from her past came up in discussion, making Rachel grin from ear to ear, and sometimes she didn't, wanting him just to see her eyes flutter after he looked at her and leave some kind of mystery between them. Rachel's had enough of stoking their friendship, however. She wants so much more than just being Finn's friend.

Quinn Fabray seems to be the only person standing in her way. Although Santana continues to tell her that no one would acre if she did it, Rachel can't become the other woman in Finn's life. It would be immoral and she knows it would hurt her so much, watching Finn's relationship with Quinn crumble into shambles all because of her. Besides, Finn seems so happy with Quinn. Every time she goes to the Hudson-Hummel house for dinner as a guest and Quinn just so happens to be there, all Finn can do is hold onto the blonde's hand and press kisses to her temple and make Rachel feel that horrible, familiar pang of guilt in her stomach. The same pang of guilt that tells her that she'll never be good enough for Finn.

:.:.:

"Hey," Santana tells Rachel one afternoon, walking into her bedroom to find the brunette curled up on her bed, still in her pajamas that Santana's leant her. Rachel hasn't found a pair of pajamas that she's liked yet at Victoria's Secret, no matter how many times Santana takes her. She thinks they're all too frilly and skimpy and far too revealing for something as simple as nightwear.

Rachel sobs to herself and turns her head to the television screen. She's watching _Moulin Rouge _today, a fresh box of tissues by her side to wipe her eyes with. Santana gives an eye roll and walks over to the television set, flipping it off.

"Hey!" Rachel exclaims, sitting up in bed. "Santana, I was watching that."

Santana grumbles something in Spanish and stands in front of the TV set, hands on her hips. "Look, Rachel, I'm sick and tired of you moping around the house all day, alright? I want to watch something on TV, anyway. They've got some Maury special on this afternoon that I want to watch." Rachel looks at Santana, eyes laced with sadness and worry.

"I'm not leaving," she protests, feeling new tears spring to her eyes. "Quinn wouldn't leave, so I'm not leaving, and-"

"Oh my God, will you just end it with that shit?" Santana paces around for a moment, muttering words in Spanish that Rachel feels are curse words. Santana seems to enjoy using foul language and part of it is rather comical, but not now. Now it just makes her feel worse about everything that's happened. Everything she's done has been for nothing, and she doesn't even know how long it's going to last for. Sometimes Rachel gets upset because she doesn't know when she gets to go home, or if she even wants to go home. She didn't want to at first. This new place, wherever she wanted to call it, seemed a bit better when she had Finn Hudson there to watch over her. She liked having his enormous shadow cast over her, almost like it was a shield. He was her protection while she was here, and she liked it so much, sometimes Rachel felt like she could stay this way forever as long as she had Finn as that constant in her life. Santana and Kurt are great, but there's something about Finn that brings this sunshine into her life that she can't find the right words for. Now, she doesn't know if she needs to stay here any longer – and if she does, she won't enjoy herself and she'll constantly be frightened of whatever obstacle she faces next. She wants Finn right there with her, every step of the way. Someone like Quinn is an unavoidable obstacle in this situation. She doesn't even think that Santana can help her this time around.

"How am I supposed to forget someone like her?" Rachel asks, tears piquing at her eyes. She can feel her voice get lost under her sobs and wants to stop talking, but she can't. Santana seems like the only person she can force to have listen to her. "He loves her, Santana. He loves her and he doesn't love me." She cries, this time curling into a ball on her side as she lays on the bed, resting her face in one of Santana's pillows. Her chest tightens and she begins to feel queasy; her heart beating a million times a minute. "You saw the way she kissed him the other day. He _loves _her. He'll never love me."

Santana can't believe her eyes or ears, watching Rachel beat herself up over someone as stupid as Finn Hudson. Even back to their sophomore year, when she and Quinn could be considered friends, Santana didn't see the appeal behind dating Finn Hudson. Sure, he was the quarterback of the football team, but he didn't seem like the kind of guy Quinn would want to be dating. She looked like she would end up marrying some kind of Ken doll type and live in Lima the rest of her life with her white picket fence wrapped around her house and her 2.5 children and fake tan that she tried her best to keep up with. The more time Santana spent around Finn, the more down to earth he seemed. He seemed like a likeable person who wouldn't be caught dead dating Quinn Fabray.

"Rachel," Santana says, walking towards her bed and sitting on the corner of it. Santana thinks back to all of the times she's been in the same position as Rachel; crying on her bed with her mother sitting on the corner, rubbing her back and telling her that everything's going to work out for the better. Only with Rachel, Santana isn't sure if things actually are going to work out the way she wants them to. The way both of them want to, if she's being completely honest with herself. She needs to tell Rachel all about Quinn and Finn and their past together. It would be unfair for her not to know. Seeing Rachel sob to herself doesn't help, either. It's not the horrible, over the top crying that some people try, either. Although Santana wouldn't put hysterical crying beyond Rachel, it's plain to see that the girl is hurting. She's closed off and quiet, like she doesn't want Santana to see her crying.

"Don't cry, Rach," Santana tells her, shifting over on the bed and sitting closer to the other girl, rubbing her back just like her mother used to do to her. "We don't know if you're an ugly crier or not yet." Santana laughs nervously to herself for a second, unsure if Rachel catches her attempt at a joke – and she doesn't, not bothering to look up from her pillow. Santana sighs and tilts her head down to see Rachel's, pinched and covered in tears. "Look, Rachel, I'm sorry, alright? I really, truly am. But Quinn…" Her voice trails off, sighing for a moment. "Quinn and Finn aren't exactly perfect, alright? She treats him like shit and for the past year or so he's just let her get away with it, and we all felt for him, you know? He didn't deserve to be treated that way, and Quinn treats everyone like that, at least when you first meet her. She's a bitch, but not like how I'm a bitch. She's a bad one." Rachel laughs a bit, tears still rolling down her cheeks. She looks up from Santana's pillow and Santana smiles a bit, glad to see that Rachel isn't completely dead. "Finn's such a nice guy, Rach, and well…" Santana lets her voice trail off for a second, looking at Rachel. "I think you deserve to know everything about them. Both of them."

:.:.:

"Finn and Quinn kind of started getting together at the beginning of our sophomore year – last year. It was after the homecoming game. Finn was the quarterback of the football team, and for some stupid reason Quinn was elected captain of the cheerleading team." Santana rolls her eyes, still bitter over the fact that she was never cheerleading captain. Co-captain, but never captain. Never the title that Quinn Fabray holds. "Anyway, she didn't even know who he was up until the night of that game. She just told me at halftime that she was going to date the captain of the football team now that she was the head cheerleader, and that was it. She thought it would be okay to follow through with that stupid high school cliché that everyone thinks is normal." Rachel watches Santana, reaching for the occasional tissue from the box that Santana's handed her to dab at her eyes.

"So she just started dating him? Just like that?" Santana gives a little shrug and makes a face.

"I guess. Finn had never had a girlfriend before, and Quinn had dated a bunch of guys in middle school or whatever, and he was probably just surprised that someone wanted to date him. I'm not exactly sure." Rachel nods, wanting to let Santana know that she understands. "But yeah, they've been dating since then, but it hasn't all been great. Quinn's the most manipulative person I know, and she likes to try out new ways to scare the shit out of people on Finn. He's like her little punching bag. Whenever Quinn starts to feel like shit, she just takes it out on Finn." Santana feels a lump in her throat and she swallows it, shaking her head a bit. She feels like she's supposed to feel horrible, but she doesn't. Rachel is one of the nicest girls she's met in her entire life – well, nicest next to Brittany, but Brittany's her girlfriend. She doesn't count. There's something about Rachel that is so nice and light and bright, and no one else that she's ever met has that quality. It makes her life so much easier when she's with Rachel, and she loves spending time with her, almost as much as she does spending time with Brittany. Rachel Berry is like a little light that's come to Lima. Santana doesn't know how or exactly why, but she's positivity at a time when she needs it most, and that's really all that matters right now.

Rachel adjusts herself on the bed, drawing her knees up against her chest and holding them close. "So did Finn just start dating her? Just like that?" Santana nods slowly, not looking very pleased.

"He had never had a girlfriend before and he thought that Quinn was this great thing that had just come into his life," she explains plainly. "Finn got this huge surge of popularity and all of a sudden everyone loved him, and Quinn was walking around like she was the next best thing to sliced bread or some shit." Rachel nods, eyes wide. "They walked around school like they owned the place, because they basically did, and it went on until this past year. Finn won us another championship and Quinn was so proud of him, and it basically just went on like it had been. They were just 'more in love with each other.'" Santana rolls her eyes and looks at Rachel, noticing how she doesn't seem as upset as she once was. Maybe telling her all about Finn and Quinn isn't the best idea, but she figures that she has to know at some point in her life. Having all of her unbridled feelings for Finn plaguing her can't feel very good when she sees Quinn hang herself in front of him like she's a piece of meat and stick her tongue down his throat right in front of her. Santana's been in Quinn's position before – and Rachel's. She knows how to play the game, but more importantly, she knows how to win.

Rachel feels herself pink as Santana's eyes fall on her, looking down at her lap and beginning to pick at Santana's comforter. "When did… w-when did Finn and Quinn decide to… consummate their relationship?"

"The summer of sophomore year," Santana tells her. "Quinn told him that she was still a virgin too, so he thought that it was some big deal when she finally gave it up to him." Santana paused, sighing. "I know I'm a horrible person, but even I wouldn't do something like that."

"Aren't you supposed to wait, though?" Rachel asks, looking up at Santana, eyes still wide. "I've always thought you're supposed to wait until marriage to actually… you know. Have sex."

"Most people don't," Santana tells Rachel, not bothering to pull a face at what Rachel's said. Judging by the rest of her opinions and actions, Santana isn't surprised when she finds out that Rachel's a virgin. Just by looking at her, you can tell. They have a certain look about them, after all. "But, you know, if you are Rach, that's fine. A lot of guys respect girls who are." She waits on a beat, feeling a lump form in her throat. "Finn was up until he fucked Quinn." Rachel ducks her head down and feels her body tense after Santana uses the coarse word, the Latina across from her apologizing.

"So he loved her and made everything special for her, and he never knew that she was lying?" Rachel feels her chest tighten, like she's about to cry, but she doesn't. Her mouth hangs open a bit and she can't bring tears to her eyes. "That's so horrible," she says. "Quinn really did that? Did she even love him?" Santana sighs and looks at Rachel, sorrow lacing her own eyes. Why did she ever have to come here, anyway? It's not like Lima needed someone to come and solve the problems of everyone in town, and even if it did, Santana always thought they would send someone like an old pastor or a guidance counselor from another country to fix everything, not an eighteen year old girl. She doesn't understand why every time she has a conversation with Rachel she feels different afterwards, like she's just dug up some problem she buried five or ten years ago and actually handled it, like a grownup would. She's causing the town to grow up, and it's all for the better.

"I don't know," Santana says off-handedly. "Quinn always said that she was, but I don't think she was. She only actually told him once, or at least that's what she told me. Just one 'I love you' and that was it." Rachel feels her entire face turn red, lips falling into a frown.

"Are you still friends with her?" Rachel asks sheepishly, tucking an errant lock of hair behind her ear. Santana shrugs.

"I don't know. As of right now? Not at all. Especially after that kissing thing she pulled at auditions the other day. That was uncalled for and it made me come so close to going all Lima Heights on her sorry ass." Rachel giggles a bit, causing Santana to laugh along with her. "But no, I don't think we're friends. I can't handle spending any more time around her if she keeps on deciding to be the way she is. I'm the only one that's allowed to be a bitch, okay? Remember that." The girls begin to laugh and Santana takes Rachel's hands, holding them in her own and looking at her with a smile. "Rachel, you don't need to worry about anything Quinn Fabray does, alright? I want you to make Finn fall in love with you because you're you, and that's it." Rachel giggles and Santana lets go of her hands, getting off of her bed. "Now, go get ready for callbacks tonight. We're leaving in twenty minutes and I'm not letting you go looking like shit run over."

:.:.:

She does marvelous at her callback, and only does better when she realizes that Quinn isn't there. Her absence is met by a snide remark from Santana, and the two girls do outstanding, being asked to sing the duet between Maria and Anita and being received with smiles and open mouths throughout the audition room. Kurt's there too, singing and dancing along with everyone else. Although he's not asked to read for Tony, the part he wanted, he is asked to read for Riff, which doesn't seem to upset him too much. Rachel seems to forget all about Quinn and how she seems to tie weights to her heart any time she sees the blonde with Finn.

The group of three sits down in a little group, Rachel sitting between Kurt and Santana. Kurt rests his hand on Rachel's knee and makes a little squeal when another boy stands up and begins to sing. This time Tony's song is sung, and Kurt can't help but smile when he hears the boy sing.

"He's adorable," he tells Rachel in a whisper, causing Santana to roll her eyes. Rachel just smiles and looks up at the boy, only being able to see him from behind as the groups of hopefuls all watch from behind, unable to see the faces of their competition. "And his voice… his voice is wonderful, isn't it? I don't care if I'm not cast as Tony anymore, just as long as he is." Rachel giggles and places her hand on Kurt's, hushing him.

"Keep it in your pants, Twinkle Toes," Santana hisses, crossing her legs. "You don't even know if he plays for your team or not yet. For all you know, he has a girlfriend who has boobs that he loves to death. Keep on dreaming." Rachel can't help but giggle at the banter between to two, trying to stay as quiet as she can without causing too much of a scene. Talking during someone's song could break her audition all on its own. She chooses to listen to the words of the song Kurt's mysterious singer is saying. It's a good thing that she can read music and is a fast learner, otherwise Rachel wouldn't be doing very well at her callback. All of the music from this show is so beautiful, she thinks, and she hopes she gets in. She doesn't care who she is; Maria or the chorus. Just being able to sing all of the music with Finn, right there beside her is enough to make her heart sing.

"Number 36," the director calls, looking at Rachel. For a moment she forgets what her number is an has to stare down at her chest to remind herself, but by then Kurt and Santana are both pushing her up out of her chair to meet whatever demand the director has. "Sing this with him. Someone, get her the sheet music." The accompanist begins to tinkle out the first few notes and Rachel feels her face turn red, looking back at Kurt and Santana for support, but she gets nothing more than an eager smile and a thumbs-up from the both of them, turning to face the boy she's set to sing with.

He's tall, but he's nowhere near as tall as Finn – everyone seems tall to Rachel, however. He dresses so nicely; in a pair of dressy slacks and a sweater vest and a bowtie, and for the first time Rachel feels like she's seen someone that dresses like how she's used to seeing people dress. His hair is gelled back and his smile is rather enchanting, so she shoots a smile back to him. It isn't long, however, until she feels like she recognizes him from somewhere. She begins to sing and her eyes stay trained on the sheet music shaking in her hands, but she can't help but to think that she's met him before. It's a funny notion, really, considering she's only been here for a few weeks. He just seems so familiar, and the way he sings… it's like she's known him forever. She steals a glance at him for a moment, recognizing him.

She knows him. She's known him for forever.

:.:.:

"Fabulous," Kurt tells Rachel as the three gather their things and begin to leave. "If you're not the next Maria, Rachel, I'm going to call whoever the authorities are and sue them. You were absolutely fabulous." Santana smiles as Rachel beams, looking up at both of them.

"Your voice is actually pretty nice," Santana says, complimenting her as best she can. As long as you're not Anita, I see no problems here." The girls begin to giggle and Kurt stops in the middle of the hallway, Santana and Rachel halting behind him like tin soldiers.

"That's him," he says, placing a hand to his chest. "Be still, my beating heart, that's him." Santana swats at him and Rachel begins to giggle, looking at him from further away. She wants to run up to him and give him a hug, because she knows exactly who that is. Whether or not she should tell Kurt, however, is the question she's plagued with. She doesn't want to. Finn told her not to say anything to anyone, but maybe this boy is in the same situation she is. He might even be her ticket out of here.

"You guys, go out to the car. I need to go to the bathroom," Rachel lies, shooing Kurt and Santana off towards the doors. "I'll be out in five minutes." Kurt rolls his eyes while Santana mumbles something in Spanish, the two heading off towards the doors and into the parking lot. Rachel walks up behind the boy and smiles, tapping him on the shoulder. "Excuse me…" she says, her voice quiet at first. The boy turns around and smiles at her, Rachel smiling back at him. "Blaine Anderson?" The boy's eyes light up as he recognizes Rachel, bringing her in for an embrace.

"Rachel Berry!" He nearly picks her up off of the ground, causing her to giggle incessantly. "How did you- why are you…" he voice trails off, tears piquing in Rachel's eyes.

"Do you know why I'm here?" She asks him, taking him by the hands. Blaine smiles at her, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "I've been here forever and I never thought I would ever find someone I knew… and I know you, so I figured-"

"You're fine, Rach," he tells her, settling her down a bit. "You're going to be just fine."


	8. Somebody To Love

**Hey everyone! Sorry I wasn't able to update earlier this week, I had to update my Microsoft Word program and it took a lot longer than expected. But I spent my time off deciding how I want the story to end – and I'm really excited for it! Anyway, updates will go back to normal again, I promise. Also, please feel free to review this! I love hearing what people have to say about my writing and I'd love it if you'd leave your two cents. It would mean a lot to me!**

Rachel looks at Blaine with a small smile, giggling softly as she sees him. She can't believe what she sees, what she hears. There he is, standing in front of her. Rachel never could have dreamt that she would be standing in Finn's era, or whatever she wants to call it with someone she knows and recognizes. It's enough to make her want to cry, but she doesn't. Rachel picks up Blaine's hand and inspects it carefully, eyes wide and almost full of worry as she focuses on his hand. They're so big and warm - they remind her of Finn's.

"You look a bit surprised," Blaine says with a small laugh, resting his hands on either side of Rachel's waist. She sighs and falls into him, resting her head against his chest, eyes pinched shut. Blaine finds his hand on Rachel's back, consoling her slightly. "Rach…" his voice trails off, rubbing her back and feeling her chest rise and fall with her heavy breaths, giggling slightly as she rests her hands against his chest. "Are you alright?"

"I am," she says after a while, looking up at Blaine, her face still planted against his chest. "I just… I can't believe it's you." She sighs deeply and pulls away from him for a moment, her smile nearly lighting up the entire hallway. "Why are you here, then?" Her face twists into the confused look it had been in before, hands grabbing his wrists. "And why am I here, Blaine? I've been so scared ever since I got here, and-"

"Rachel," Blaine says, shaking her hands a bit and causing her to stop. "You're still the same old you." The two back away from each other for a moment, Blaine taking the time to truly look at her. He analyzes her face and takes her in for the first time, confused. "You look… so much younger, Rach." He smiles at her and reaches out to place his hand to her cheek, Rachel dipping her head down and blushing. It's what he always used to do to her, his hand feeling like it belongs on the side of her face once he places it there. "Just like how you looked when we met. When we were eighteen – you remember?" He takes notice of her new hair and how she dresses has changed, but that comes naturally. He dresses somewhere around the same, but he's still adapted to the 21st century, just like everyone else. Rachel has this glow about her – the glow he's looking for. It's exactly what she's supposed to have.

"They say I look like I'm eighteen now," she explains, removing his hand from her face. "All of the new friends I've made… they all just assume I've graduated high school, I think, but none of them have." She giggles a bit and takes Blaine by the hand, making a face. "If only they knew, right Blaine?" She looks up at him with a smile, hoping that his face will match hers, but it doesn't. Her face falls and she becomes worried, eyebrows furrowing. "I'm not eighteen, am I? I don't… I'm not eighteen. I can't be."

Blaine looks at her sternly, sighing. "Rach, who are all of these people you've met? Like, that girl and the boy you were sitting with at the callback? Where are you living?" The smile slowly starts to reappear on Rachel's face, but nowhere near as great and as bright as it had been earlier.

"Oh, those are Santana and Kurt," she tells him brightly, her voice not losing its chipper quality that he recognizes from their years together. "Santana, of course, is the girl – she's rather cross most of the time, but once you get to know her she's lovely, really. Kurt is the boy, and he kind of reminds me of you, Blaine – all dressed up and classy and he loves show tunes, just like you and I. He keeps on listening to these records – and they're not really records, you know, because they're these tiny little plastic silvery things that you stick into another big plastic thing… but anyway, he listens to these records of this woman named Barbra Streisand who he says he loves, and I suppose her music is alright, but she's no Judy Garland, Blaine." She giggles as she goes off on another one of her tangents, her face lighting up once more. "Do you remember that one time when you and I almost met Judy Garland in the bathroom of Sardi's that one night?"

"Rachel," Blaine says rather curtly, interrupting the girls' daydream. "I need you to tell me all about the people that you've met here, alright?" He places his hands on her shoulders and looks at her, his face looking sterner than before.

"Well, there is this boy…" She lets her voice fall off and Blaine smiles knowingly, watching as Rachel walks away from him for a moment. He chases after her, grabbing onto her by the hand.

"Rachel."

"He's the one whose room I woke up in. He's so handsome, Blaine, really, he is. He's got eyes that are as green as that dress I have that I wore to your birthday party that one year, remember?" She sighs for a moment and giggles happily to herself, picturing Finn in her head. She's never really taken the time to truly think about all of the qualities he possesses that make her feel so madly in love with him, but now that she is she can feel her heart beat a million times a minute. "He's so tall, too… much taller than me, but I guess everyone's taller than me. He's just… he's so lovely, Blaine. Every time I see him I feel like I'm supposed to be with him – at least for that moment, I think. The way he looks at me and the way I feel when I'm around him just makes me feel loved, I guess." She pauses and looks at Blaine for a moment, catching herself as she feels her heart slow down. "But why am I _here,_ Blaine?" She looks at him, eyes pleading for an answer. "I've been here long enough and I want an answer. How am I supposed to get back home?"

Blaine looks at her with a small smile, swinging her hand slightly as he doesn't break contact with her eyes. She's so beautiful; it's enough to make him want her. It's no surprise that she already has a boy that's fallen in love with her. At least that's what it sounds like when she talks about whoever this mystery boy is.

"Can you come with me?" He asks, looking at her. "I promise, I'll explain everything. Just come with me. To my car."

Rachel looks at him with a small smile, looking out of the window of the theatre. It's raining, the lights of Santana's car turned on. She just nods and they head out, Rachel holding Blaine's hand the entire time.

:.:.:

"I'm just saying, I wouldn't mind going out for coffee with him. At least let me find out what his name is," Kurt pleads to Santana in her car, the Latina rolling her eyes at the thought. He's still gushing over the boy who sang with Rachel, the Tony hopeful that he finds adorable. Lady Gaga is being pumped through the car, Santana noticing Rachel and some other figure running out of the theatre at long last.

"Finally," she gripes, laying into her car horn. "Ya es demaciado tarde, ay…" Kurt rolls his eyes as she begins to go off in some kind of Spanish tangent, looking in the rear view mirror. "Oh, don't look now, Kurt, but she's running out here with your little piece of man candy." She snickers a bit, looking at Kurt with a smile. "He's even shielding her from the rain with his cardigan. How sweet." Kurt swats at her and Santana makes a face, noticing Rachel standing before her car and tapping on the window, asking to have it rolled down.

"This is Blaine," she says over the rain, Santana eventually complying with her wishes. "He and I are actually friends, and we haven't seen each other in so long… we're going to head out to catch up over some coffee, alright?" Santana nods her head and shoots a smile over to Blaine, the boy with the gelled hair smiling back.

"A friend?" Santana asks, a bit curious. "What, are you guys like, diaper buddies or something?"

"We went to high school together," Blaine pipes from behind Rachel. "Rach is just lovely. I can't believe we're seeing each other again." The two feign smiles and surprised grins and Santana just rolls her eyes, waving her hand before the two of them.

"Whatever you say, cream puff," she says, revving her car engine. "Just make sure he brings you back to my place, alright? I'm not about to go and get you at all hours of the night. Crazy, chica." Blaine smiles with Rachel and looks into the car slightly, grinning.

"You two were both fabulous," he says, Kurt smiling a bit. "Really, I'd be surprised if you two weren't Riff and Anita." Santana nods her head approvingly and Kurt just grins, Santana rolling her window up with a small smile.

"He's so gay," Kurt says with a smile, drumming on his knees giddily. "Gay diddy gay gay gay."

:.:.:

Rachel adjusts herself nervously in Blaine's car, watching as he sits in the driver's seat next to her. For some reason she isn't allowed to drive a car here, and she doesn't know why. It wasn't like she couldn't drive a car back when she was in her own respective era. Just not without a license, that was all.

"Tell me more about this boy you've met, Rach," Blaine prompts her, startling the brunette a bit. "I need to know more about him. Trust me."

She giggles and smiles to herself, beginning to play with the hem of her dress. In any other situation, she wouldn't be as willing to give out so much information about herself or her feelings or someone she had felt that she had grown so close to, but it's Blaine. She's known him for ages – literally, if you included their little jump through time.

"His name is Finn Hudson," she gushes, looking at Blaine with a smile. "And he's just… he's so lovely, Blaine. He's everything I've ever wanted in a boyfriend or a husband." Her voice drops for a moment, realizing what she's saying. "But it's no use, really. He's already taken." Blaine looks at her, a frown crossing over his face. "I really shouldn't be chasing after a man who already has someone special in his life."

Blaine makes a face and looks at Rachel for a moment, reaching out to touch her cheek once more. It's like their contact makes her alright again, or at least puts her somewhere where she feels like everything's alright. It's a sensation she hasn't had the liberty of feeling in a long time, and she wants it for as long as she can have it.

"You are so stunning, Rach," he tells her, smiling. "I'm sure this boy… whoever he is, he finds you just as beautiful." Rachel smiles slightly, looking at Blaine with a pout on her face. "Whoever ends up with you in the end is one of the luckiest men in the world." She giggles, looking down into her lap and blushing. "Besides, that's kind of the reason as to why you're here." Rachel looks up from her lap, face flushed.

"Why?"

He sighs, resting his hands on the steering wheel and staring out the windshield. He doesn't know how to start with this – how do you, essentially, tell someone living that they've already died? She's dead. He's dead too, but at least he knows that he's dead. She doesn't. She's living day to day thinking that everything is perfectly fine and that the only thing she really has to worry about is getting back home. It's just too bad that there really isn't home for her. This is home – she's stuck. They're both stuck. They're in limbo together, whether they like it or not.

"Rachel, I want you to remember the very last thing you did back before you… before you came here, alright?" She looks at Blaine, eyes wide and waiting for an answer. "Can you remember?"

"Of course," she says plainly. "I was driving home to Ohio. It was Christmas time and I was just cast in my first Broadway show – I was going to surprise my parents by driving back home for the holidays." Blaine blinks and leaves his eyes closed for a moment, feeling a lump form in his throat. It wasn't easy hearing about your best friends' death on Christmas Eve. The memories seem to flood him much faster than they do to Rachel – but that's natural.

"Anything else?"

"I remember parking the car off on the side of the road because it was late and I didn't want to drive at night, and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was-" She pauses, looking at Blaine with a smile. "Oh, Blaine, you don't have to cry. It's alright." He shakes his head from side to side as she tries to comfort him, confused.

"No, Rach, you don't… you don't understand." She looks at him, feeling tears well up in her own eyes. "You died that night." Rachel feels her entire body go numb, feeling herself go into complete shock. She can't be dead. She's walking and talking and breathing and _living, _the exact opposite of what dead people do. She's reminded of when she first woke up in Finn's room – the exact words he had said echoing in her head and sending shivers down her spine.

"_Wait… aren't you supposed to be dead?"_

"No," she protests, choking on her own sobs. "No, Blaine, you're lying. Finn said the same thing when I first met him. How can I- I can't be dead. I just can't be." She begins to cry, hiding her face in her hands. Blaine just nods, swallowing his own emotions and looking at his friend.

"You parked your car on a set of unmarked train tracks," he explains, sorrow filling his voice. "By the time the train was coming, it was too late. You were fast asleep." Rachel looks up at Blaine for a moment, unable to look at him for too long. "I'm so sorry, Rach."

She cries and doesn't know what to do with herself, feeling like something truly has died within her this time. She doesn't understand how any of this is possible – and why her, of all people? She's never done anything horrible to make her deserve such a punishment. What a horrible punishment cast upon her by some horrible, horrible higher power, and there's absolutely nothing she can do about it.

"So am I a ghost, then?" She looks through her hands and wipes her tears away from her eyes, still unable to grasp everything. She's dead. There's no coming back from the dead. She can't be a ghost, though. Otherwise she wouldn't be able to speak to the people she's grown to love so dearly while she's been here. She wouldn't be able to hold Finn's hand and look at him so longingly in the way she does.

Blaine shakes his head, smiling a bit. "No," he tells her, reaching out to touch her hand. "But, Rach, there is a way for you to get out of all of this. And the best part is for you, is that you're already half way there." He smiles gingerly and Rachel looks at him, continuing to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"So I'm some kind of time traveler?"

"Not exactly," he says. "I don't know what it is, but there's something about the whole… movie thing… movie magic, I guess you could call it. When you died, Rachel, you had never been in love. When you woke up in that boy's room, it was like you were waking up from the sleep you took that night – we're in purgatory, essentially. Only it's not all bad. You're sent back to find the one you love – and well, Rach, the one you love is clearly here. That's why you were sent here."

Rachel looks at him incredulously, blinking back tears. "I'm here… I'm here to find somebody to love? That makes no sense," she says. "I loved people back… back when I was alive." She finds the words are hard to say. She can't help but think of Finn, however. He rests in the back of her mind and she thinks about him constantly, everything she does with him in mind. He's so perfect and she wants to spend so much more time with him than she does already, He's the only one that knows her story, for the most part. When she's with him, she feels like she can truly be herself. There's no one else she would rather spend her time with while she's here. She wonders if Blaine's speaking of someone in particular – because if he is, Finn Hudson is the one for her. She's positive of it.

"I don't understand," she says, utterly confused. "I'm supposed to find someone to fall in love with?" If that's the case, then she doesn't want to play that game. Searching for somebody to love and finding somebody to love were two entirely different things. She has no interest in pining after Finn. She wants him to fall for her, just like how she's fallen for him. Sometimes she wonders if he already has, judging by the way he looks at her and talks to her. He's so sweet and he looks at her with the eyes of someone who cares, genuinely cares about her well-being and how she's doing, adjusting to the new reality she's been planted in.

"Sometimes you have to find them," Blaine explains, looking over at Rachel with a slight frown. "I haven't had the most luck finding one for myself. But you, Rach… you're so stunning, and you already sound like you've found someone."

"Someone _I _love," she corrects him, blushing slightly at his compliment. "I have no idea as to whether or not he loves me back." She thinks of Finn for a moment, and how he smiles whenever he sees her. The way his lips curl up into that crooked little smile makes her giggle whenever she sees it. "Why do I need someone to love me, though? I don't understand."

Blaine sighs a bit, staring out the windshield. "When we died, Rach, we never had anyone that loved us. Or, I guess, we were never in a relationship where the two people loved each other. Coming back here, to the future, I guess, is our second chance at love. We live here until we find the one we're meant to be with, no matter how long it takes – and when we finally do find that person, we get to stay here, with them." Rachel smiles slightly, looking at Blaine.

"I always thought you were going to marry the little girl whose father was the RKO Pictures producer… what was her name again?"

"Sugar," Blaine says rather bitterly. "You know why I was set to marry her, Rach. Her father was going to put me in the next big picture and she was… it was convenient, you know that." Rachel nods her head slowly, remembering her past with Blaine. He's like Kurt; he doesn't swing towards the ladies. He's a complete fruit, to be blunt, and she's supported him since the day he's confided his secret with her.

"You'd be surprised," she reassures him, touching his hand. "Things are different here. There are so many other… _queer _men in this era, Blaine. Why, Kurt is. He picked out this dress for me, you know." She gestures down to the dress she's wearing, beaming. "Maybe he's the one for you."

"Maybe," Blaine begins, contemplating the idea. "But Rachel, you have the boy that you've fallen in love with right here, waiting for you. Go after him and make him yours." Rachel hangs her head down, looking in her lap. "What's wrong?"

"Finn's already got a sweetheart," she explains, feeling the lump return to her throat. "Quinn Fabray, with blonde hair and blue eyes and a size zero dress to squeeze into. I'll never measure up to her, Blaine." She wipes her eyes slightly and sniffles, tipping her head back up. Her makeup's never gotten so ruddy before, frightening her for a moment as she looks into to the rear view mirror. "I don't think I was meant for him."

"Do you love him?"

She waits for a minute, contemplating the question. "Of course I love him, Blaine, I just-"

"Then you love him. He was the boy whose room you woke up in, Rach. If that's not a sign… then I don't know what is." Rachel smiles at Blaine, leaning over the console splitting the two of them apart and wrapping him in an embrace, resting her head in the crook between his neck and his shoulder. "At least try, Rach. What do you have to lose?"

Rachel looks at Blaine with a bitter smile, feeling some kind of confidence begin to build within her. It isn't much, but it's enough to make her feel better about her situation. He seems like he's in the same boat as she is, and she's more than willing to help him along the way.

"I should talk to Kurt and see what I can do," she says with a laugh, wiping a few stray tears from eyes. "I think he likes you anyway."

:.:.:

"I still don't understand why I'm here." Finn looks around the coffee shop as he sits at the table awkwardly, looking around uncomfortably. This is where Kurt normally frequents for his coffee, not Finn. That, and he wouldn't expect to be sitting across from Santana in a million years. She sips from the coffee she's ordered herself, Finn not drinking anything. He's not a coffee drinker.

"Because when I want to talk to someone about it, I have to do it in public," Santana explains, setting her cup down. "It's something I've been working on. I have rage." She crosses her arms over her chest and gives Finn a judgmental glance, quirking an eyebrow. "That, and you seriously need to be talked to."

"What about?" Finn scoffs, beginning to feel uncomfortable, although he won't show it. He doesn't want to be alone with Santana. She scares him, even though he won't admit it.

"Oh please, like you don't know. Ever since she's gotten here, Rachel's been the only thing on your mind – and don't act like no one notices, because they do. All you do is look at her and hold doors open for her and all of that sappy shit that happens in _The Notebook._ When you're not staring at her ass you're staring at her tits, and when you're not staring at her tits you're staring at her smile." Santana looks at Finn and watches his face as he reacts, pretending to be surprised and shocked although his face is turning red. "You don't spend as much time with Quinn as you used to. Quinn used to be your moon, Finn, and now… Rachel's like this big star that's lit up your life all of a sudden, and Quinn's gone." Part of her wants to tell him the truth, how Quinn has virtually no interest in him anymore, but she doesn't see the purpose behind it. Part of her feels that Finn doesn't love her anymore either. "It's like Rachel went up and hung the moon just for you."

Finn can't believe his ears. He doesn't want to believe his ears, even though he knows that the best thing for him to do is to listen to whatever feelings he's been having for the past few weeks. Santana's right; ever since Rachel's arrived he's felt this new kind of urgency, like the kind he had felt when he first met Quinn. That rushed, happy urgency that comes with love fills him each time he sees Rachel in Kurt's bedroom or in the basement, sitting with him and giggling. He always notices the way she looks when she laughs at Kurt's jokes, her nose scrunching up on her face and her laugh able to fill the entire room, like a clear bell ringing through the house. She's such a breath of fresh air he can't stand it, driving him close to the point of madness.

Sometimes she spends the night at his house, when she has sleepovers with Kurt and she takes showers the next morning, waking him with the sound of her singing. He'll be genuinely shocked if she doesn't receive the lead in the summer musical; her voice is stunning and unlike anything he's ever heard.

"She's a great girl," he says, trying to mask his emotions. "Can I help it if I like her as a person? It is possible, Santana. You know, you don't always have to want to have sex with someone in order to love them." He sighs, realizing that Santana's telling the truth. When he can and it's not too obvious, Finn does try to steal glances at whatever attributes Rachel has. She's modest, but he likes that about her. Except for that one time Santana had dressed her, Rachel's always looked so lovely and modest and put together. It's hard to not find her attractive.

"I know you like her as a person," Santana argues. "But I know that you don't love Quinn anymore. Hell, you probably don't even like her anymore. Ever since Rachel got here, it's like she's the only thing in the world that matters to you." Finn can't answer. "And the fact that you don't want to say anything only proves my point. Admit it, Finn. You have some kind of… some kind of love for her." Santana smiles a bit to herself, sipping from her coffee once more. "Believe me, she's great. Ever since she's got here… she's just made everything better, that's all."

"Quinn's just… she's been weird these past few weeks, that's all."

"Please. She's just going to move on to whomever she sees fit. Quinn's nothing, Finn. Rachel… she's just different, okay? She's made everything so much better, Finn. Ever since she got here it's like she's patched up all of the holes we have in our lives… and you still can't tell me that you love her?"

"So what if I did love her," Finn challenges Santana, looking at her as though it were a challenge he was proposing. "There's nothing I could do about it. If I were to break up with Quinn, she would kill me. You of all people know that." Santana rolls her eyes, Finn sighing and slumping over a bit in the booth. He lowers his voice, suddenly sounding more insecure than before. "It's not like she would say yes, anyway."

Santana smiles to herself, pushing her coffee out of the way. "You'd be surprised," she says, her voice actually sounding sweet and genuine for the first time. "At least take her out to dinner. Bring her to Breadstix. Make it sound like… like you'll be treating her to a night on the town. It doesn't have to be a date." She smiles at Finn and he tries to smile in return, looking down at the table.

"I need to break up with Quinn."

"Just take Rachel out this once. I think she deserves it." She looks at Finn once more, noticing the fatigue that washes over him as he mentions Quinn's name. "And you do, too."


	9. Date Night

**A/N: This is a long chapter – sorry, I had to fit all of their date night into one chapter! Some of the math on my years in the 40's/50's may be off, but I tried to make them as accurate as possible. The dates of the movies/musicals and when they were released are in no way accurate, I just know that they were released in the same decade. I tried to remain on a timeline as best as I could, but I know that there are some accidents in there somewhere. I don't have a beta to check these things, so. I hope you enjoy it either way!**

Rachel's finally managed to convince Kurt that he should listen to the music she listens to. He's not as difficult to persuade as Santana, of course, who always wants to listen to Lady Gaga or Amy Winehouse or Adele, all singers that Rachel's never even heard of before. She tolerates most of the music that Santana and Kurt listen to, but she misses her own records. She misses sitting in Central Park with Blaine and humming a Judy Garland hit between the two of them, smiling at one another and holding hands as they sat on the bench. Many people would think they were an item, but Rachel would just laugh whenever one of her friends would suggest that she see the shorter boy with the affinity for bow ties. Blaine was simply adorable, but she wasn't about to fall in love with him. She already did love him, just not in the way that everyone wanted her to. Apparently, she's supposed to be looking for the love that everyone wants her to have.

Tonight, they've agreed to disagree and Kurt pulls out yet another one of his Barbra Streisand albums, only instead of it being on one of those flimsy little silvery plastic things (everyone calls them CD's and Rachel still isn't sure as to why), he pulls out a vinyl record, something Rachel's used to seeing. She doesn't mind listening to this Barbra Straussman – or was it Streisand? – as much as she used to. Her voice is beautiful and she sounds like she really knows what she's doing with it; a consummate professional. Rachel's sitting in the chair that sits in front of the vanity in Kurt's room, Kurt combing his fingers through her hair as she looks into the mirror.

"You are going to look so beautiful," he tells her confidently, resting his head close to her shoulder and looking at her reflection in the mirror. "Finn's not going to know what hit him." Rachel giggles a bit, her nerves showing past her smile. She's worried that he won't like her when he sees her. She isn't Quinn, after all. She doesn't possess the same fair hair or face as Quinn, her figure nowhere near the delicate frame that the blonde has. She's short and has brown hair and has a nose that makes her stick out in a crowd, the complete opposite of Quinn. Quinn is tall and leggy and is beautiful and Rachel is just herself. She doesn't know how to make herself look like Quinn Bishop or like Santana or like Brittany, even. They're all such beautiful girls and Rachel just knows how to look like herself. She's always been this way. The sore thumb in a group of girls.

Rachel pushes her bangs out of her eyes and looks at herself in the mirror, eyes widening a bit as she catches her own appearance. She's wearing one of Kurt's robes, a frilly pink thing that has a princess crown bedazzled over the breast. "You can keep that if you'd like," he tells her as he rummages through the corner of his closet that he's reserved for Rachel during her stay. He keeps a special reserve of dresses at his house just in case any kind of special occasion arises. "It doesn't fit me anymore and I never really wore it, anyway. It was just kind of one big joke. Being gay doesn't come very easily in this town." Rachel turns around in the chair to look at Kurt, sighing a bit. As long as he and Santana are trying to play matchmaker for her, she might as well do the same for him.

"What's it like?" She asks him, resting her hands in her lap. "Being gay, I mean. It must be… well, it must be very difficult, Kurt."

"It can be," he says with a sigh, examining a dress with a ladybug pattern printed across it. "But it does get easier the more people you have to support you. Santana's kind of always been there for me, whether I like it or not. She's had her fair share of garbage because of her and Brittany, you know." Rachel frowns slightly, thinking of Santana being teased. She would think that the feisty girl would punch anyone who teased her square in the mouth, but maybe she was wrong. Her mother would always tell her that the villains of the world were always the one who were the most hurt, anyway.

"I'm so sorry," she tells him sympathetically, wringing her hands slightly. "I think that you and Santana are both wonderful, if it's any consolation." Kurt cracks a small smile as he looks at her once more before looking back into the closet. He can't decide on what dress to put her in for the night. He feels like he should know which one would make Finn go weak at the knees, but he doesn't. It's not like he can go upstairs and ask his stepbrother which dress Rachel could wear would make him want her more.

"Why do you ask?"

Rachel doesn't want to blow her cover. She wants to set him and Blaine up on a pleasant date, not some rushed and hectic date that leaves the both of them with a bad taste in their mouths. "Oh, no reason, I just figured you'd like to meet my friend, Blaine. You know, the one at callbacks." She catches a glance of Kurt smiling to himself and giggling slightly, causing her to laugh herself. "I just knew that you fancied him, so I figured I would ask." Kurt smiles as he pulls a hanger out of the closet.

"It's like you can read minds, Rachel Berry," he tells her, laying the dress he's selected for her out on his bed. She giggles and looks back into the mirror, flipping her hair over the shoulder.

"I have been told by others that I've had my prescient moments," she says proudly. "Anyway, I could arrange a date between the two of you. Blaine fancies men too, you know. I think you two would be absolutely darling together." Kurt smiles, toying with Rachel's hair and resting his fingers against the curling iron he's prepped for her, checking to see how hot it is. He loves how her words weave together and how developed her vocabulary is; much more than his fellow students at McKinley.

"Well, we'll just see then," he tells her, almost unable to control how excited he is. Rachel is like a godsend. He doesn't know what he would do without her. "Now, is there any way you'd like your hair to look in particular?" Rachel smiles at Kurt and looks at his reflection through the mirror.

"Not really," she says calmly. "I just… I just really want him to like it, that's all. I want to look like one of the girls on the magazines, Kurt." She sighs, if almost to herself, looking down into her lap. "I want to be pretty." Kurt scoffs for a moment and places his hands on his hips, looking slightly upset.

"Rachel, you are one of the most beautiful girls I've met," he begins, looking at her reflection in the mirror. She truly is; not wearing makeup and still having this eternal glow about her that he knows makes Finn nuts, because he's heard him mention something about how lovely she looks when she wakes up after she spends the night at their house, coming up for breakfast wearing nothing but her pajamas and a smile. "And do you want to know why? You're such a lovely, classy young woman. There aren't many girls who have the classic kind of beauty you do, Rach." He smiles and looks at her, causing a smile to slowly bloom on her face, cheeks pinking. "You're up there with Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn and –" He pauses, a light bulb appearing over his head. "Hold on." Rachel looks at Kurt with a confused look on her face, not sure what he's up to. He scampers over to his record player, where the vinyl recording of his idol crackles through the room, making the mood a bit lighter and happier than it would be if, for example, Santana was conducting what was playing and Amy Winehouse was blasting through the speakers.

"This is you, Rach," Kurt says, showing Rachel the album cover with a flourish of his wrist. Rachel examines the cover and notices it's a picture of the woman Kurt's been listening to ever since she's met him; Barbra Streisand. She's never seen a picture of her before, and she doesn't look the way she's expected her to look. She has mousy brown hair and a nose like hers. Rachel's always pictured a stunning blonde when she hears Barbra Streisand sing. She doesn't know why, but the image of some Barbie doll has always been stuck in the back of her head, and now it's not. "Your imperfections are what make you… well, _you_," Kurt says with a smile. "And believe me; Finn thinks that you're beautiful no matter what. You could go out in a barrel and he would still think you were gorgeous." Rachel clutches onto the slip for the record and looks into the mirror once more, smiling a bit.

"Can we make my hair look like hers, then?"

"We can make your hair look like whatever you want it to look like," Kurt says with a smile. He picks up the curling iron and gives it a little flourish, another hand pulling open a drawer and extracting a pair of scissors. "And if the Baby Houseman look is what you want, then that's what we'll go for."

:.:.:

Finn looks at his reflection once more before walking out into the living room, nervously holding the bouquet he has picked out for Rachel. He thinks it's kind of funny; he's never gotten ready for a date when his date is in the same house as him, being prepped by his stepbrother for the big affair. Part of him feels like what they're doing is wrong – he has Quinn, after all. She's technically his girlfriend, and he's supposed to be there for her no matter what. She's the possessive type too, and he knows that if she were to hear anything about him taking Rachel out to dinner, she would fume and be in a perpetual rage – and the worst part out of all it would be that she wouldn't take out her feelings on him, but on Rachel. If he had promised her anything when she had arrived in his room that one morning, it was that he would protect her from anything – or anyone – that threatened to cause her harm. If Quinn was going to be something that would end up hurting her, all Finn wanted to do was to protect her.

He dresses in something that he feels is nice enough; his best jeans that don't have any stains from taco night on them, an old t shirt that has McKinley Athletics printed across the front paired with a nice hoodie. Kurt's given him lectures before on how he needs to dress nicely when he goes out on dates, but he doesn't want to wear a dress shirt and dress pants or anything. He doesn't want to make Rachel feel like she's underdressed. Of course, with her record of wearing a sundress or a pleated skirt everywhere she goes, he doubts that she'll feel underdressed.

"Well, you look awfully nice," his mother tells him from the kitchen as she notices Finn walk into the living room. "And you even bought her flowers, Finn?" She looks at him with a smile and Finn can't help but smile back. His mother really has taken a liking to Rachel; she's been at their house often enough. She sticks her hands back into the soapy water where she's washing dishes and looks at her son, beaming. "I'm sure whatever Kurt's doing downstairs will make her look absolutely beautiful, baby. She's a beautiful girl either way." Finn knows what his mother's trying to say. She's never had a real liking towards Quinn. She's told him that she thinks she's somewhat cold and artificial, and up until a few weeks ago, Finn couldn't see where she was coming from. Now he sees why people don't tend to care for Quinn as much as she thinks they do. Sometimes it makes him wonder if people feel the same way about him – is he guilty by association? He loves Quinn, or at least he thinks he does, and he doesn't want anything to come between the two of them, but Rachel's somehow managed to do exactly that. She's got these big brown eyes that he loves to stare into and a smile that could light up all of New York City, he swears. She's got this glow that Quinn just doesn't have, and he doesn't want to admit it, but he's falling for Rachel Berry. The girl that's from the 1940's and might not even be real, as far as he's concerned. He's in love with the girl that doesn't know what a cell phone is and that can't understand why all of the movies are in color, but he doesn't care. She's got a personality that outshines every single one of her downfalls.

"Alright," Kurt chirps, running up the stairs from his room. "Finn, your date is gorgeous. If I were straight, I would be all over her." Finn jabs Kurt in the side with his elbow, both of them staring over at his mom in the kitchen. No one knows that he's treating this date as an actual date – and that so is Rachel. It's their test drive for the other, and he couldn't be happier. He just doesn't need his mother meddling in his business.

"Anyway," Kurt continues, his voice low and quieter than before, "She looks wonderful. She's actually kind of nervous for you to see her – for anyone to see her, for that matter, so just… take everything in stride, alright?" Finn nods, feeling his heart palpitate in his chest. He's excited to see her; hoping to see a change from Santana's original makeover. He's sure she looks absolutely beautiful. "Alright, Rach! He's ready!"

Finn can't believe his eyes as she walks up the stairs and into the living room, her hands clutched together in front of her, looking up at him nervously. Her dress is stunning; a strapless black number that ends just above her knees, her waist expertly cinched with a large, pink bow that hangs off to the side of the dress. Her legs look like they go on for miles, accented only by the black pumps on her feet that lengthen everything about her. Her hair, however, is what truly draws his attention; it looks shorter and it's been curled, loose ringlets framing her face with her bangs falling slightly in her eyes, pinned back with a pink flower pin that Kurt had found attached to one of his jean jackets.

"You… your hair, Rachel…"

"Kurt cut it," she says, her voice quiet and painfully shy. Even though she's felt so comfortable around Finn since meeting him, she feels like a stranger now, meeting him for the first time. "It's only a bit past my shoulders now, but I like it better this way. It's less management, I think." She brings a manicured hand up to play with her hair, eyes drawn once again to Finn. He just stares at her in awe, unable to take the entire image of her in at once. She looks up at him once more, a worried look stuck to her face. "What are you staring at?"

"N-nothing," Finn stammers, unable to break eye contact with her. "You just… you just look so beautiful, Rach." She blushes furiously and smiles, flashing him her teeth. He forgets that he has the flowers for her and stumbles with the bouquet, nervously handing it over to her.

"They're beautiful," she tells him, pressing her face into them and inhaling a deep breath. "Daisies are my absolute favorite." She can't tear her gaze away from him, smiling as she stares into his eyes. Kurt looks at the two of them, arms crossed over his chest.

"If you two don't hurry up, you'll miss out on your reservations," he reminds Finn, causing the boy to snap back into attention and search for his keys.

"He's right," he says frantically, finding his keys and waving goodbye to his mom. "Come on, Rach, we should get going… I'll be back by midnight at the latest, okay? I'm dropping Rachel back off at Santana's." His mother laughs from the kitchen and smiles.

"Alright, sweetheart. I trust you."

:.:.:

She's so bubbly and sweet, and the way she can hold a conversation is enough to make him think that she's supposed to have her own talk show or something. She's such a darling girl, making him wish that he had known her for longer. He doesn't know when she's supposed to leave, or if she's ever going to leave. Maybe she's stuck here, in his time or era or whatever she's calling it. He can only imagine how scary it is for her, being in a new situation where she doesn't know anyone or know how anything works. She still doesn't completely understand how cell phones work, but he doesn't mind. Teaching her about the new things that the 21st century has brought the world is part of what makes her so exciting. Each thing that he mentions seems to make her even happier than before, and it makes his heart swell every time he sees her smile. She's got a charm about her that makes anyone in a room stop what they're doing and pay attention to her. It's no wonder she's a movie star; she captivates people. Rachel Berry is a star. She's his star.

Rachel catches her breath through her laughter and looks at Finn sitting across from her, unable to stop smiling. "You're joking!"

Finn laughs along with her, smiling just as wide. "No, I'm serious! Kurt had this phase where he thought he would dress up like a greasy trucker or whatever and people bought it. He even tried to date Brittany." This makes Rachel laugh uncontrollably, beginning to choke on her lemonade.

"Brittany Pierce?" She swallows her drink and looks at Finn, surprised. "Santana must have had a fit."

"No, she didn't. She and Brittany weren't going out at the time." Finn smiles, thinking of how much Rachel doesn't know. Their group of friends has gone through a lot of changes in the past three years alone, many of which are all kept secrets from Rachel. Finn's sure that if Kurt ever found out that he was telling her all of this, he would hit him – either that, or force him to do something stupid that he wouldn't like. "Santana was dating Puck at the time. Or, at least she was trying to make everyone think that she was dating Puck." Rachel giggles and Finn smiles, unable to handle how cute she is when she laughs. Her nose scrunches up on her face and she looks adorable, causing him to want to at least take her by the hand across the table. He doesn't know how she's so cute, and whether or not she puts it on by purpose or if simply by accident. "But I want to hear all about you," he prompts her, causing her to smile. "What did you do back when you… back when you were you?" Finn doesn't know how to phrase the question exactly. He just knows that she's not from here; she's from some other era.

He doesn't know about the fact that she's dead. Rachel chooses not release that little bit of information. She doesn't want to frighten him or anything. Not when she's got him wrapped around her finger and she can see him falling for her. It's too easy to mess something up like Finn and her. She wants them to last as long as they possibly can, and telling him that she's dead wouldn't be the greatest way to make sure that happened.

"You don't need to know about me," Rachel starts, shaking her head. "I'm not very special. I'm sure your stories are much more interesting than mine." She doesn't know what to tell him. On one hand she wants to tell him all about herself, and on the other she doesn't. Maybe he won't care.

"A beautiful girl like you has to have an interesting story, right?" Rachel looks down into her lap and smiles, her face turning red and her entire body feeling like it's on fire. "I wonder sometimes, y'know? Sometimes I picture your life being exactly like how it's described in my history book, and then this other part of me thinks that there's this other side to wherever you're from, Rach." Finn pauses, noticing Rachel laugh a bit at whatever he's saying. For some reason he knows that she's not laughing at him, and instead she's laughing at the idea of him. The more he thinks of it, the more he likes it – Quinn never does anything like that. Whenever the two of them go out, all Quinn is concerned with is her cell phone. Rachel pays attention to him and smiles and giggles and stays present, something Quinn only does when she knows there's something in it for her.

"I'm not too interesting, you'll find," Rachel begins, tracing the rim of her glass of lemonade with her finger. Her nails are painted a light, cotton candy pink, matching the sash around her waist. "But I guess I could… if you were willing to listen." Finn nods his head and smiles.

"Of course I'd be willing to listen," he tells her. "Besides, I know how much you love to talk."

"I'm originally from here," she begins, looking at Finn with a smile. "Lima used to be much smaller, back in my day, but it's grown into a rather nice town, I suppose. I lived on Birchwood Lane, right across the street from the bowling alley – and they bowling alley is the same, I think. The lettering outside of the building hasn't changed and it's still the same yellow bricks on the outside." Finn smiles as she begins to reminisce on her days as a high schooler, reminding him of his Nana. He's sure that if she were whatever age she was supposed to be today, she would be around her age – but he likes her better this way. She's much more vibrant than any other girl he's met. "Anyway, I lived with my mother and my father, and that was it – I'm an only child, you see. Most of my days were spent with my mother, since my father was always out working. He would go on business trips and he would always go to New York, where I always wanted to go. I've always wanted to go to New York and become a star, just like Judy Garland or Katharine Hepburn." Rachel smiles and sighs to herself for a moment, taking a sip of her lemonade. "Anyway, he would always go to New York and when he came back, he would always promise me that one year, he would take my mother and I to see the skyscrapers in the city. We would go around Christmastime and get to see the Radio City Rockettes, and go to Rockefeller Center and see a show on Broadway – an actual show on Broadway, Finn." She sighs to herself. "I was so excited."

"So what happened after that? You obviously made it to New York."

"I told everyone in high school that I was going to move to New York when I graduated. They all thought I was stupid, because I was supposed to grow up and become a housewife, just like every other girl in my graduating class was supposed to. But I wanted something so much more than cooking casseroles and banana bread for my husband all day. I wanted to sell out Madison Square Garden and sing with some of the greatest musicians in the world, and I certainly wouldn't be able to do that by staying in the kitchen for the rest of my life." Finn smiles at her determination, something that obvious carried through with her into now. "When I told my parents, they said that they would let me do whatever I wanted, as long as I proved to be successful. So I moved out to California when I was eighteen, hoping to make some kind of mark as a film actress. I had always heard that it was much easier to become a film actress, or at least a background actress, so I went to casting calls after I arrived in Hollywood."

"What was your first movie?"

"A small picture. It wasn't anything special, but it was a movie – and I was so excited that I phoned my parents in Ohio and paid the long-distance fee with my new paycheck!" She giggles. "It was after that when I started in the other films. _Casablanca _and _Gone With the Wind… _and then I met my best friend on the set of _Citizen Kane, _and we decided that we were going to move to New York together. He was like me; we both wanted careers on Broadway instead of in Hollywood. You have to change for them in Hollywood, you know. They make you dye your hair and change the color of your eyes and wear makeup that makes you look absolutely ridiculous. There's something about the theatre that's more forgiving with people's flaws, so we wanted to go there. He was a short fellow too, and I certainly didn't look like Maureen O'Hara, so we moved. We saved up two hundred dollars for the both of us to go on a plane from Los Angeles to New York." Finn's eyes bug at the sound of a plane ticket from Los Angeles to New York only costing one hundred dollars.

"Rach, that's… weren't you scared?"

"A little," she says, reaching over for a breadstick. "But we had each other, and that was really all that mattered. My parents were so excited for me, and my friend, Blaine was successful right away. He starred in _Oklahoma! _quickly after we moved. I went to see him and I felt so great, being able to know someone who was in an actual Broadway show."

"And what happened to you?"

"It's harder for girls," she explains, almost bitterly. "Most of it all depends on what you look like. But there was one show, and I figured I would audition for it – _Annie Get Your Gun. _I was cast as Annie Oakley, and it was a hit. I couldn't have been happier… and it was marvelous, Finn. I felt like an actual celebrity – like I was Judy Garland. That show closed and then came another, _South Pacific, _in which I starred in, which was great. Everything was marvelous."

"You were in that movie, too, right?" Finn remembers watching _South Pacific _and seeing Rachel in the background.

"Yes," she replies, smiling. "They thought it would be a fun idea for me to be in it, only I simply ended up being in the chorus. It was a bit of a gyp, if you ask me." Finn laughs, smiling at her as she speaks of all of this. He's never heard Rachel to have a bad attitude over anything they've talked about, but this seems to be it.

"Well, I'm sure you were better," he offers, causing her to giggle. "So did you decide to stay in New York afterwards?" If he had done his research correctly, _South Pacific _was the last movie she had appeared in.

"Yes," she says, adjusting her hair. He still can't get over her hair. It looks fabulous. "I flew back to New York to see Blaine in yet another show, because he was becoming so successful, and then we were both offered parts in one of the biggest movies at the time – _Singing in the Rain. _I was so excited, and Blaine and I would be in a film together, both starring in it, and it would have been the most magical thing in the entire world." Finn smiles and looks at how excited she seems when she talks about the movie she could have been in, grinning from ear to ear. "It was Christmastime then, and I was going to drive home to my parents in Ohio, but I…." She stops talking; realizing that everything Blaine's told her is true. It was when she died, and it was how she ended up here, back to where she started right before she moved to California.

"But you what?"

"But then I ended up here," she corrects herself, lying slightly. It's not like that wasn't how things happened. She's here now, and the last she remembers was falling asleep in her car. She's not lying through her teeth. She notices Finn's face drop, but she smiles, hoping to save him from too much grief. "And I don't know what happened with you and the television set, but I have to say, Finn, I'm so thrilled I get to spend my time here with _you._" Now she's not lying anymore. Everything she says is true; too true. She loves Finn. She only wishes he would feel the same way about her.

"I'm pretty glad you're here too, Rach," he tells her with a smile, reaching out across the table and finally grabbing her by the hand. Rachel tips her head down to look in her lap and smiles, feeling her entire body turn red. Maybe Blaine was right. Doing this is one of the best ideas she's had since arriving with Finn and his group of friends.

:.:.:

The two of them are walking together, Finn holding Rachel by the hand as she maneuvers around the courtyard in the back of the restaurant in her heels. They're nowhere near as high as the ones that Santana wears, but Rachel likes them just the same. They're more flattering, she thinks.

"So, Kurt tells me you've got quite a voice," Finn tells her, looking down at the girl whose hand he's got wrapped up inside of his. Rachel looks up at him like she's surprised. "He told me that you 'rival Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand and all of those other people he listens to." Rachel giggles and looks at Finn with a smile, swinging his hand a bit.

"Kurt sure does love that Barbra Streisand lady," she says, grinning. "And thank you, I guess. I've always loved to sing. It's kind of what makes me… me, I suppose." Finn looks down at her and smiles, realizing that they're alone. The only things surrounding them are the strings of lights around the gazebo in the courtyard and the shrubbery, but other than that it's just them, holding hands and smiling at one another.

"Sing me something."

Rachel chokes for a minute, unable to comprehend what he's told her. "Here? Now?"

"Why not?" Finn smiles, stopping in front of the gazebo and still holding her by the hand. "I'll even dance with you if you'd like. I can't promise you that I'm much of a dancer, but I'll dance with you." He takes Rachel's hand and adjusts it to what he thinks is closed position, but Rachel quickly giggles and adjusts the two of them, moving his hand to her waist, where it fits perfectly, her hand resting on his shoulder. She looks up at him and he looks down at her and their eyes meet, causing Rachel to look away, her cheeks pinking and her smile turning into a nervous grin.

"Alright," she says bashfully, looking back up at him. "But I can't promise you that it'll sound good." She steps around a bit and he dances with her, Finn eventually taking the lead as Rachel sings, her voice lower and quieter so as not to draw too much attention to themselves.

"_I'll be seeing you, in all the old familiar places… that this heart of mine embraces all day through…" _She giggles and stops singing for a moment, Finn stopping along with her.

"Don't stop," he tells her urgently. "It's beautiful."

Rachel laughs and continues, this time singing louder. _"In that small café, the park across the way, the children's carousel, the chestnut trees, the wishing well…" _He laughs as they continue to dance awkwardly around the gazebo, Rachel beginning to laugh.

"Your voice is beautiful," he tells her, causing Rachel to stop, looking directly up at Finn. Their eyes meet and she can't even bother to giggle, his eyes looking into hers. The silence between them seems fitting, like it belongs there, and Rachel finally breaks it, moving her other hand up to his other shoulder.

"You know, you can kiss me if you want to," she says, her voice nearly silent. "I won't tell anyone."

Finn doesn't say anything, and instead bends down slightly to reach her, Rachel standing up on her toes to reach him, their lips meeting somewhere in between. He kisses her and at first she doesn't know what to do; if she should kiss him back or not. After all, she was the one who told him that she wanted to kiss him. He wraps his arms around her waist and holds her closer, causing Rachel to kiss him back. They continue to kiss each other and it feels like the entire world around them doesn't exist; the only thing that matters is the two of them, finally being able to be with one another. She pulls away from him for a moment, Finn pushing her hair out of her eyes.

"I've wanted to do that for a long time," he confesses, causing Rachel to giggle. She stands back up and kisses him, this time with much more vigor than the first kiss. He kisses her back and she smiles into their kiss, wanting so much to say something else to him – but they're stopped. The sprinkler system is turned on and the entire courtyard is showered from every angle, breaking the two of them apart. Rachel pulls away from him and the two of them laugh, Finn grabbing her by the hand and running out to the parking lot towards his car. He doesn't know how he's gotten so lucky to find a girl as perfect as Rachel – and the worst part is, she's not even his.

:.:.:

"Why were your clothes wet when you got home?" Kurt asks the next morning over breakfast. The two boys sit in the kitchen together, Finn leaning against the sink with a bowl of cereal in hand. "What, did Rachel take you to a water park or something?" Kurt laughs and Finn smiles, thinking back to his date the night before. He can't tell Kurt about any of it. He knows Rachel won't, and he's afraid that he'll let it slip one day that he and Rachel danced together while she sang. And that they kissed and the sprinklers were turned on them. And that he drove her home and kissed her once more before she got to Santana's.

"Oh, Rachel accidentally rolled the windows down last night," he says, looking down into his bowl. "Someone had their sprinkler on and it hit me. It really sucked." Kurt looked at Finn suspiciously, taking another bite of his toast.

"She looked so nice last night, didn't she?" Kurt sighs to himself, picturing the image in his head. "Her hair looked fabulous, and her dress… I swear, Rachel Berry could be an old film star. She's just… she's got that classic beauty about her."

Finn smiles at Kurt's remark and tries not to laugh at the irony. If only Kurt knew that she actually were an old film star, maybe he wouldn't say the things he does.


	10. Of Confessions and Contraceptives

"Wake up!" Santana screams, hitting Rachel with a pillow. She climbs onto the makeshift bed that she's set up for Rachel in the corner of her room; an air mattress with a bunch of pillows and blankets littered over it. "There's an important voicemail on the phone and it concerns you!" Santana walks out of the room and Rachel looks up from her pillow, eyes slowly fluttering open. Santana's room is bright; the blinds open for one of the first times in a long time. Rachel stirs around on the mattress before standing up, pushing her hair out of her eyes. It's still curled from the night before, part deflated and part matted down from her sleep. Her night had been marvelous – no, beyond marvelous. She doesn't understand how being with Finn had made her feel like she was one of the most important girls in the world to him, but all she knows is that she loves it. She loves how she felt in his arms, how he seemed to do nothing but protect her, how her lips felt against his. She's never kissed someone on the first date before. Part of it makes her feel like she's one of the girls who goes around sleeping with everyone and kissing every boy she sees, but the other half of her feels that nothing else could feel more right than being with Finn and having him hold her in his arms and kiss her. It's one of the only things that makes her feel like she belongs in this era with him.

"Hurry up," Santana calls from the kitchen, her mother sitting at the kitchen table while nursing a Bloody Mary. "Mamá, play the answering machine for Rachel," Santana orders as she opens a kitchen cabinet and pulls out a box of cereal. Rachel traipses into the kitchen and Santana's mom flashes her a smile, beckoning for her to sit at the table with her.

"I'm so proud of you girls," she says, setting her drink down and wrapping an arm around Rachel. "You'll be wonderful, mija – and Rachel? Sweetheart! You're going to make all of the boys want you. Every single one of them will be at this door, begging me for you." Rachel laughs at bit at Santana's mom; she's always liked her. She's been quite hospitable and caring for as long as she's been staying with Santana, making Rachel glad she's staying with the Lopez' of all people.

"What is it?" Rachel asks, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Her makeup is gone from the night before; some of her eyeliner smudged around her eyes and her blush still faded onto her cheeks. Santana pours a bowl of cereal for herself and Rachel, the voicemail beginning to play in the background.

"_Hello, this is Emma Pillsbury, the stage manager for Lima Community Theatre's production of West Side Story. Um, we'd like to offer up the parts of Anita to Santana and Maria to Rachel, so please call us back with your confirmation! Rehearsals start next Monday at-" _The voicemail is cut off, Santana's mother wrapping an arm around Rachel's shoulders and pressing a kiss to her cheek.

"I'm so proud of you, Santana," she says, looking up at her own daughter. "And you, Rachel. Who would have thought I would have such talented girls in my house?" Rachel giggles a bit to herself, Santana dropping off her bowl of cereal in front of her. She scans through her phone and smiles to herself, Rachel trying to look over Santana's shoulder in order to see what she's reading. Santana's mother stands up with her drink and walks into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

"Kurt's Riff," Santana says, eyes still glued to her phone. "And Puck's Bernardo." The words fly over Rachel's head, not knowing what Santana's talking about. All she knows is that Kurt's gotten cast in the part he wanted, and Puck's in there somewhere; she's never really taken to him, but she figures that she should be proud and happy for him either way. "Oh, and Blaine's Tony. Congrats, Rach." Rachel giggles happily, looking over at Santana with a smile.

"Is Finn still going to be playing in the pit orchestra?" Santana nods her head and continues to read other texts on her phone, noticing Rachel sitting in her chair and swinging her legs from side to side, smiling like she's gone crazy.

"Rach… are you alright?" Rachel nods her head and smiles.

"Of course I am… why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you just got cast in the summer show as the lead over Quinn, who's going to kill you, and you had a hot date with her boyfriend last night… I don't see why you wouldn't be happy. You've done good. I'm impressed." Rachel looks at Santana, slightly surprised.

"Did Quinn not get cast?"

"Oh, she's cast," Santana explains with a snort. "She's Chorus Girl #4." Rachel looks down into her lap solemnly, guilt consuming her out of nowhere. She instantly feels horrible; not knowing as to whether or not she should feel happy for her own accomplishments or if she should feel sorry for everything that's happened to Quinn. She's been nothing but mean to her, but she doesn't know if she should reach out and try to befriend Quinn Fabray or not. She seems like she could actually be nice if she liked her.

"Oh," Rachel says, looking down in her lap and beginning to pick at her nails. "Well, I'm sure she'll do fine all on her own," she says quietly. "After all, there are no small parts, only small actors." Santana chortles to herself and snorts, rolling her eyes.

"I really don't care about what she has to say about any of it," Santana says plainly. "She's just upset that ever since you got here, her little fake world of perfection and everything has come crashing down." Rachel looks up at Santana through her lashes, feeling her heart beat faster and faster. She doesn't want to feel guilty about this whole problem Quinn is going through. Maybe she should just find a way to leave everyone behind and make sure that Quinn can't become anymore upset with her. She could always just elope with Finn and live happily ever after. That was always an option.

Rachel looks at Santana, finishing her bowl of cereal and walking it over to the sink. There's a beat of silence between the two girls that goes on for too long, Rachel standing at the sink and beginning to twist the hem of her pajama shirt nervously. "Santana," she says quietly, her voice still causing the Latina to look up from her phone and notice Rachel standing by the sink, looking more nervous than ever. She sets her phone down and looks at Rachel, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What is it, Rach?"

Rachel wonders if she should tell Santana about what happened the night before on her date with Finn. All she knows is that the two of them went out to dinner and Rachel came home with a big bouquet of daisies and wet clothes, but Santana didn't make much of it. She was half asleep at the time, anyway. But she wonders if she should look at Santana and tell her that she and Finn did more than just have a conversation with one another the night before. Maybe telling Santana about the fact that they went outside and kissed each other after dinner would be a good idea. Part of her is afraid that Santana had seen her and Finn in his car last night, anyway. He had only kissed her hard enough that she fell on the car horn and somehow caused the alarm to go off.

"I was going to ask you something… about last night," she says nervously, looking down at her hands.

"Ooh, about your date with the Green Giant?" Santana stands and walks over to Rachel, making the brunette begin to feel uncomfortable. "Tell me all about it. Kurt told me that you looked pretty hot, too." Santana looks at Rachel and picks up Rachel's hair with her fingers, making Rachel feel slightly uncomfortable. "He cut it, too. It looks cute."

"Finn was such a gentleman," she begins nervously, playing with her hair in her own fingers. "He pulled my chair out for me at the restaurant and he let me eat the last breadsticks in the basket and he was just… he was so nice to me, Santana." Santana smiles at Rachel and notices how nervous she is for the first time.

"I'm sorry you have to watch him with Quinn all of the time," she says quietly, walking back over to clear her own bowl of cereal. "I kind of find it hard to believe that I was even friends with her. Less than a couple of months ago, she was standing right where you are." Rachel rolls her eyes and looks down at her feet, feeling a lump form in her throat.

"Well, I'm sure when I leave you two can become the best of friends again," she says plainly. "There's no use in having me keep you two from staying as close as you once were." Santana sighs and grabs Rachel by the wrist as she notices her begin to look depressed.

"Hey," she says, raising her voice slightly. "Look, I know it doesn't seem like it most of the time, but I really care for you, Rachel. You're a nice girl and you're going to go really far in life, wherever you end up going. So don't sweat it, okay?" She places a hand on Rachel's shoulder and the other girl looks up at the floor to meet Santana's eyes, smiling brightly. "Besides, you're prettier than Quinn, anyway." Rachel giggles to herself, looking up at Santana with a smile. "You know what we should do?" Santana asks, hopping up so that she's sitting on the counter top behind Rachel, a malicious grin gracing her face. "You should totally sleep with Finn. That would make Quinn want to kill every single person she knows."

Rachel's eyes widen and she feels her breath catch in her throat at Santana's suggestion. "No!" She almost shouts, swatting at Santana's shoulder. "I could never do that to her. Not in a million years." The more she jokes about it however, the more the thought sticks in Rachel's mind, almost refusing to leave. The more she processes the idea of the situation, the more she wants to act on whatever Santana's suggested. She knows how horrible it is to have a relationship with someone before getting married, but she doesn't care. This is a new day, anyway. Santana's had sex with plenty of people before, so has Brittany. Even Quinn has slept with Finn on multiple occasions. It seems like she's the only one who hasn't had sex, and it makes her feel like somewhat of an outcast. Part of her wants to do it in a sense of getting it over with, and she can only imagine about what it would feel like to do something so personal and private with someone like Finn; someone who she's grown to love over her short period of time with him. The thought of it makes her begin to blush and she tries her best to conceal her emotions from Santana, not wanting to let her know that she would actually go through with such a thing if Finn were just as interested.

"Fine," Santana says with a sigh, hopping off of the countertop. "I'm just saying, it would be a great way to get back at her." She walks off to her room, turning her head over her shoulder before closing the door.

"You know, he's going to break up with Quinn either way."

:.:.:

Finn's never had a father figure in his life when he's needed one the most. His own father just missed his teenage years, and then he went through all of the confusing years of teenagerdom without a father figure by his side. It wasn't until Kurt's father met his own mother that he had a father figure in his life, and things only got better when their parents got married. Burt played the role of Finn's own father, and he was glad that he did. There were plenty of conversations that he was glad didn't have to happen with his mom and got to happen with Burt instead.

Naturally, Rachel was the subject of this conversation. He had driven up to Burt's auto shop and parked his car out in the parking lot, walking up towards the garage. Burt was busy working on the engine of some car parked out in the front. Finn shoves his hands and walks towards the car, sighing nervously. He doesn't even know if what he's feeling is right. He figures it's only natural for a new girl to come to town and for him to think that she's cute, but not with as much feeling as he currently has for her. All Finn wants to do is scoop Rachel up in his arms and attack her with kisses, or finding some other way for him to declare that she's his and he's hers, and no one can change that no matter how hard they try. He never would have guessed that all of his problems would be caused by a girl who wouldn't date him and who probably wouldn't even consider dating him even if she could. She's got to find a way to get back to wherever she's from, anyway. Besides, he has Quinn. Rachel's far too dignified to try and be his girlfriend while he's seeing someone else, no matter how much time she spends with Santana.

And yet all of the things she does inadvertently are what make him want her all the more; the way she scrunches up her nose when she laughs or how she uses her hands too much to gesticulate when she speaks and knocks over salt shakers or glasses of water at the dinner table. Her laugh is horribly contagious and he's never had a conversation with her when she isn't laughing or at least smiling, and the way she holds his hand lovingly when they walk together makes him feel like he's about to melt. She doesn't hold it like Quinn does. Quinn holds it as to show the world that he belongs to her and shows him off like he's some kind of prize, but Rachel doesn't do anything like that. She holds his hand simply to hold his hand and make sure that she's always with him, like she's telling him that she'll never leave his side without the need of using any words. The more time he spends around the more he realizes that he's falling in love with one of the most beautiful girls in the world, and there's nothing that can stop him. All he thinks about is how her lips felt against his the night they kissed, and how she went back in to kiss him again after their first kiss; which was somehow enough to reassure him that she loved kissing him just as much as he loved kissing her. Finn Hudson was in love with Rachel Berry, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Hey, um, Burt… how's it going?" Finn walks into the shop and rubs the back of his neck nervously, noticing Burt look up from the hood of the car he's working on.

"Hey," Burt says, wiping his pants off on the blue coveralls he's wearing. "What brings you here, bud? I thought you and Kurt were going to take that girl staying here to the mall or something?" Finn smiles, thinking back to what Kurt and Rachel had been talking about earlier. Kurt was going to take her to the mall and show her all of his favorite stores, and if he was right, Santana was going to be going with them.

"Oh, no reason… I just… I just wanted to talk to you about something, that's all." Finn leans against the doorway of the garage and sighs, continuing to rub the back of his neck. It's a nervous habit that he's had forever, and he practices it often. Every time Rachel walks into the same room as him, for example. "I figured that I would come to you for advice, and you know, you always seem to be a great advice giver… or at least Kurt says you are, so I figured I would-"

"It's about a girl, huh?" Burt stands up from the car and walks over to Finn, causing Finn to stand even more awkwardly around the car.

"No, why would it be about a girl?-"

"Listen," Burt says, putting his hand on Finn's shoulder and sighing. "I've seen the way you are around that girl, and I know it's not Quinn that we're here to talk about, okay?" Finn feels his entire face flush. Is it that obvious? All he's done is hold doors open for her and tell her that she looks nice and letting her know that she's going to do just fine no matter where she goes. Maybe he's spent too much time looking at her once or twice, but nothing that's devastatingly obvious. She's just a really pretty girl that he happens to spend a lot of his time around. Shouldn't he act that way around every attractive girl he sees? He's a teenage boy. He's only human.

"W-what would make you think something like that?" Finn asks nervously. "I mean, Quinn and I… sure, we've had our rough spots, but everyone's like that. You can't go through the good without going through the bad."

Burt sighs and runs a hand against his baseball cap. "Look, I'm not going to tell you what to do, because I feel like you already know what's right and what's wrong, okay? I'm just here to give you advice, not tell you what to do. You're not a little kid anymore, and you know how to make your own decisions." He sighs, looking over at Finn with a small smile. "I just know that every time that girl walks through our front door, all you can do is look at her and you get that big dopey smile on your face that just makes it that more obvious." Finn looks down at his feet, almost feeling defeated. If anyone wasn't supposed to know about his harbored feelings for Rachel, it was his parents.

"It's that obvious?" Burt smiles to himself and laughs, looking over at Finn with a grin.

"There really isn't a way to hide your feelings when they're that strong for a girl," he tells him, laughing a bit. "Believe me, I know from experience." Finn laughs a bit and the two men smile for a moment, Burt shoving his hands into the pockets of his overalls. "Look, if you have feelings for this girl, I would tell you to go ahead with whatever you're feeling. Just make sure that Quinn isn't left in the dust on this one, okay? If you have to break anything to her… break it to her gently." There's a moment of silence between the two of them and Finn sighs to himself, picking at the inside of his sleeve.

"You know, she got cast as the lead in the musical. Rachel did, I mean. She's the lead, and so are Santana and Kurt." He thinks for a moment of Rachel singing some big, show-stopping number out on the high school's stage, Finn sitting behind her in the pit and playing his drums the entire time. It makes him proud enough just thinking of her, and he wonders what he would feel like if he were actually there to see her; to hear her. "You guys will have to go see it, I guess, since Kurt and I are both in it, but still. She's going to be really good." Burt laughs a bit before patting Finn on the back.

"Who would have thought the daughter of two missionaries would be a star?" Finn laughs as he watched Burt return back to the car he's been working on, smiling a bit to himself as his words echo in his head. She is a star, he thinks. She's his star.

:.:.:

"Welcome to your first rehearsal," the man says as he paces around the theatre – well, rather _wheels _around the theatre. The cast is all seated in little fold-out chairs across the stage, some looking at one another awkwardly and other smiling as they watch the director move across the stage and explain things to them. Rachel sits with Santana and Kurt once more, the three of them all holding hands with one another while Rachel's told Blaine to sit next to Kurt. Quinn sits off next to Blaine, sandwiched between him and Puck. Rachel steals glances at her every few moments, only to see the same perpetual scowl stuck to her face. Rachel finds it so intriguing that their director is in a wheelchair. "I'm really excited to be directing my first production for the community theatre, and I'm excited for all you to be a part of it with me."

Rachel leans over to whisper in Kurt's ear. "Why is the director so young again?" She's never been able to understand it from the moment she auditioned, but everyone else in the town seems to be fine with it. She's just used to having old men with gray hair as her directors, not young boys wheeling around in wheelchairs.

"He's a student over at University of Ohio," Kurt explains in a hushed whisper. "He went to McKinley and everything." Rachel shrugs and readjusts herself in her chair, looking back to the director.

"I'll hand out scripts and rehearsal calendars now," he explains, stopping his wheelchair in front of them. "I've decided that I want pit orchestra to be in rehearsals earlier than they normally are, so keep note that you should have music memorized for the most part in three weeks from now. We're going to have this show up and running by the first of July." Rachel giggles and smiles, bouncing up and down in her seat a bit. She's used to the fast-paced setting of this, and it makes her happy.

What makes her even happier, however, is the fact that she gets to see Finn in rehearsals much sooner than she thought she was going to. She didn't know what it was lately, but ever since kissing him, all she wanted was to be close to him. It was like Finn was some kind of drug she was missing out on, and she craved being close to him. She didn't just want a kiss from his anymore; she wanted his hands around her waist and on her legs, their kisses hot and passionate and heated. She wanted physical contact and intimacy with Finn more than she had ever wanted anything from anyone in her entire life. Rachel had been in relationships with boys before, but she had never gone as far to have sex with any of them. She knew that her mother would end up crucifying her if she had ever learned that her daughter had gone ahead and had sex before becoming married, but she didn't care anymore. If she loved Finn as much as she felt that a married woman would love her husband, than she saw no reason as to why she shouldn't have sex with him. She felt like she was ready when she thought about it in her head. She really, truly did.

:.:.:

"I'm not ready!" Rachel screams across the bathroom, Santana rushing over to her and cupping a hand over her mouth, silencing the girl.

"Shut up, will you? My parents are asleep and if you wake them up, I'm going to hit you." Santana rolls her eyes and walks back over the sink where she had been sitting, Rachel planted on the toilet. She crosses her arms over her chest and sighs, looking over at the brunette sitting, looking more innocent than usual. It probably has something to do with the fact that she's just told Santana that she wants to lose her virginity.

"So you really want to do this, huh?" Santana speaks with somewhat of a laugh and smiles as she looks at Rachel. "I mean, he has a girlfriend and everything." Santana looks at Rachel with her smile still intact, but she doesn't want to show her how nervous the whole situation makes her. Santana's own virginity was thrown to the wind, and she doesn't want Rachel's to end up in the same way. She's too nice of a girl for anything like that to happen to her. It's why her ride home with Puck never ended up going in the direction he wanted it to.

"I do, I just…" Rachel's voice cuts off as she swallows the lump in her throat, sighing to herself. "I do, I promise. I just… sometimes I wonder if he won't find me pretty enough." She looks down into her lap and begins playing with the hem of her shirt. "What if by the time we're ready to actually… to actually do it, he doesn't like what he sees?" Santana can hear the nerves that make her voice shake when she speaks, and frowns slightly.

"Rach, I wish you would stop with this whole insecure complex." Rachel looks up from her lap and at Santana, who doesn't appear upset, just… frustrated. "Look at me, okay?" She moves her hand up to Rachel's face and begins wiping tears away from her eyes with her thumb. "You are a beautiful girl, you know? I don't care if you don't look like Quinn, because you know, not all of us do. Besides, most of Quinn isn't exactly real, anyway." Santana laughs a bit to herself as she wipes Rachel's eyes, mindful not to smear her eyeliner. "She was a real ugly kid back in middle school." She looks at Rachel with a smile and kneels down in front of her as Rachel sits on the toilet. "Look, if Finn loves you and you love him, neither of you are going to care what you look like once you're naked, or whatever you're worried about. All that's going to matter is that he loves you and you love him, alright?" Rachel smiles and Santana takes her by the hand, giving it a squeeze. "And trust me, he loves you." Rachel's face lights up.

"He does?"

"Why would I lie to you? Of course he does!" Santana smiles and stands to reach the medicine cabinet, fishing out a small box. "Alright, so I'm going to give you a box of condoms… and I would give you my birth control pills, but I don't think it's a good idea to give you prescription pills… besides, I need them probably more than you do." Rachel looks at Santana attentively from the toilet.

"Pills? What are you talking about?" She looks at Santana inquisitively and quirks an eyebrow. "My mother always told me that the rhythm method was the best way to prevent a pregnancy."

Rachel hears Santana scoff, turning around to face her. "The rhythm method?" She cackles to herself for a bit, walking over to Rachel and handing her the box of condoms. "Rach, that's from forever ago. That's how my parents got pregnant with me." Rachel looks down into her lap shamefully and inspects the box of condoms, quirking an eyebrow. "We'll go down to the drugstore Burtorrow and get you set up with box of birth control pills. Besides, Finn's going to need time to break up with Quinn, and you'll need time for the pills to go into effect, so it's perfect." Rachel doesn't understand how she's able to swallow a pill and prevent a pregnancy, but she knows by now to ask Santana. She's been told that she's only supposed to ask Finn all of her questions about the technology and new things that the 21st century brings, and no one else.

Oh, no.

She can't ask Finn about contraception pills. He's the very reason she's going to be taking them. Rachel feels her heart begin to pound in her chest and her palms begin to sweat. "Santana?"

"Yes?"

"You'll answer any questions I have… right?"

Santana smiles and laughs a bit, ruffling the hair on Rachel's head. "Of course, Smurfette. Anything you need."


	11. A Second Date

The summer fair is something that happens in Lima once a year. At the beginning of each summer, everyone goes down to the lakefront where the Ferris wheel and the bumper cars and the roller coaster are set up for a weekend, coming in droves of middle school students or as families – but most of the time it's the high school couples that walk down to the boardwalk together, deciding to spend their time at the shores of the lake with one another. The orange and yellow lights of the midway glow along the water and the smells of cotton candy and hot dogs and chocolate chip cookies permeate the air, creating a romantic atmosphere that not even the gazebo out in the back of Breadstix can beat.

It's not like Finn doesn't try to invite Quinn along with him. He does, but he just manages to pick the day he knows that she's going with her own family. It's why he invites Rachel instead.

"I'd love to go!" She says over the phone that afternoon. Any time she can spend with Finn that's anywhere near how she spent her first date with him is something Rachel wants again. "I used to go there all of the time. I even sang in the talent show there one year." Every time she begins to reminisce on one of her memories from whenever she was younger, Finn can't help but smile. Hearing her get excited over what she had done makes him feel like she's happy with him; happy talking to him about everything. She finally seems acclimated with her surroundings. She dresses confidently and smiles and has actual friends, and Finn couldn't be happier.

"Great," Finn says, able to hear her smile through the phone. "Um, I'll pick you up at Santana's tonight around seven, alright?" He smiles and begins to walk around his room a bit, unable to understand that this is happening. He figures he can count this one as an official date – and he couldn't be more excited. Finn can't be surer that he's falling in love with Rachel Berry. She's the loveliest, nicest girl he's met in a long time – in forever, actually, if it's possible. She makes him see everyone in a different light – Quinn especially. She's the nicest girl he's met and he doesn't understand how anyone wouldn't be able to like her. "I'm excited to see you again, Rachel."

"I am too," she says quietly into the phone, giggling a bit. "I really liked spending time with you the other day." Finn laughs to himself and he's glad that he can finally talk to Rachel over the phone instead of only being able to speak to her in person. Santana's finally showed her how to use her cell phone and she gets to call Finn now; spending hours lying on Santana's bed and talking to him about everything from movies to music to what dress she should wear for the day. Finn always seems to want to listen to her, which is all she wants. She loves how he laughs and she can picture him smiling on the other line. It makes her day every time she gets to hear his voice.

"I'll see you then, alright?" Finn smiles as Rachel falls down onto Santana's bed, politely crossing her legs as she giggles to herself.

"Alright, I'll see you then."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Rachel can't suppress her smile and her giggles when she hangs up the phone, setting it down on Santana's bed. She can't believe she's going out again with Finn, in only a matter of hours. She loves spending time with him and she doesn't know what words she can use to describe how overjoyed she feels every time she's in the same room with him. The giddy love for him she feels she can't describe, but she knows she wants to feel it all of the time without having to worry about who sees or who knows about her love for Finn Hudson. She wants to be able to run up to him and kiss him like she had kissed him on their first date, and she wants to be able to call him her boyfriend. Her feelings for him are impossible to explain, only because she's never felt this way about anyone before. Even when she was younger and thought that she had fallen in love, she's realized that all of that wasn't real love; it was just her telling herself that she had fallen in love with someone. She's glad that it's Finn out of anyone else, and it makes her feel like she's accomplished whatever she's been supposed to be accomplishing while here. Maybe she'll get to stay here forever, and grow old with Finn. It's all she wants, really. She loves him enough, and she feels that he might just have the same kinds of feelings for her.

:.:.:

Quinn doesn't understand what she's done wrong concerning her relationship with Finn. She feels like she does everything that a girlfriend is supposed to do, and she has been. Everything had been perfect up until that Rachel girl showed up with Finn to the movies that one day. She doesn't know what it is about the brunette that makes everyone love her so much, but she hates it. She hates how she's pried her boyfriend away from her in a matter of a month, and has done absolutely everything she's wanted to do the summer of her junior year. It's the summer of her junior year; it's supposed to count for something.

"Why don't you invite Finn to come along with us?" Quinn's mom asks that night as the blonde stands in front of her bathroom mirror, combing her hair. "It's been a while since he's done things with us as a family." He mother is pure sunshine and rainbows, and Quinn can't stand it. She feels that her mother is an enormous liar whose only purpose in life is to listen to her father's every command. It's why her own personality is so harsh and biting; she needs to be a parallel to her mother in some way. She's not going to spend the rest of her life as a housewife who nurses a scotch all day long. She wants more than her mother's life because she's worth more than her mother is.

"I think he's busy," she says, fixing her eyeliner. "Finn's been very distant lately… I don't really see him that much anymore. He's going to be playing in the pit orchestra for the show and rehearsals are going to be stressful, and he's-" Her voice cuts off, sighing a bit as she looks in the mirror for a moment. "He's hosting this girl right now, from Carmel. She's the daughter of two missionaries. She's in the musical, too."

"Who's she playing?"

Quinn bites her tongue for a moment and sighs. "Maria."

"Oh, well maybe we should invite her along as well!" The news soars over Quinn's mother's head, not making her feel any of the emotions Quinn clearly wants her to feel. _The alcohol must have gotten to her brain, _the blonde thinks. "She must be a nice girl if her parents are missionaries."

"No," Quinn snaps, turning to face her mother at last. "I mean, I just… no, alright?" She sighs and looks back in the mirror. "I'd rather us just go out as a family. You, Daddy and I?"

"Alright, Quinny. Whatever you say."

:.:.:

He's a teenage boy, and he knows he's supposed to feel the feelings that he feels. They used to be worse; back before he had gone out and had sex and didn't know what to expect, but now they're different. Now it's just the craving to have the same feeling again, and he finally understands why Puck constantly wants to get laid. Everything got easier when he became Quinn's boyfriend, mainly because she wasn't a virgin like he was. She was willing to do whatever he wanted with him, which Finn didn't abuse, but he definitely took advantage of. Sex was no longer the big, ominous idea that frightened him like it did to every other guy his age. He just didn't think much of it and he knew that when he finally did do it, he was supposed to feel like it was an act of love.

He wonders if the fact that he doesn't love Quinn anymore affects any of the ideas he has about sex. He hasn't said anything about it, but when he sees Rachel and talks to her, he thinks with the mindset of all of the guys from the videos he watched in his health class. He sees a girl that he wants to give the world to, not just someone he wants to sleep with and forget about. She's too good for that, and he knows she is. Finn doesn't know what it is, but there's something about being with Rachel that makes him want to be with her all of the time – and when he isn't with her, all he can think about is how much he wants to be with her.

It almost reminds him of how he felt when he first met Quinn; happy and overjoyed and almost sunny. Finn never would have thought that he would use the word 'sunny' to describe his disposition, but it was the best word to use. The only difference between his feelings about Quinn and his feelings about Rachel were that Rachel reciprocated those feelings. She loved him just as much he loved her, and that was what truly mattered.

He thinks of her from time to time, and how much he loves her. The way she smiles at his jokes and holds his hand like she's going to lose him forever if she doesn't makes him feel like he's actually worth something to her. Quinn's never been that way with him. Rachel's really been the only one to show him that she loves him. The way she smiles at his jokes and holds his hand like she's going to lose him forever if she doesn't makes him feel like he's actually worth something to her. Quinn's never been that way with him. Rachel's really been the only one to show him that she loves him – and for some reason, it means even more to him than it would if Quinn had been acting the same way. He doesn't love Quinn. He loves Rachel Berry with his entire being.

:.:.:

He picks her up at Santana's and she looks effortlessly stunning. Sometimes Finn wonders how she manages to look as lovely as she does all of the time. It's almost as if she sleeps with her hair and makeup all done and just shows up to whatever she wants looking like a princess. Her dress is a pale yellow frock with little butterflies embroidered onto it; her waist cinched with a turquoise ribbon that ties into a giant bow in the back. Her hair isn't as curled as much as it had been on their first date out together, but it's still the new length that Kurt's created for her, pulled into a ponytail at the top of her head and tied together with a ribbon that matches the one around her waist, her bangs falling into her eyes. She looks effortlessly put together, and classy at that. Part of him wonders if it's all Santana and Kurt's doing, but he knows that it isn't. Rachel's looked perfect since the day she woke up in his bedroom. He's never seen Rachel in anything that looks like she's begging for attention – well, unless you excluded that time Santana had dressed her for the first time, but Rachel had even confided in him that she hated that outfit. She told him that she felt it made her look cheap and he agreed with her in his head. No matter how hot she looked in the dress Santana had put her in, he always thought she looked at her most beautiful when she was wearing the clothes that Kurt had picked out for her. They made her look like she had come out of one of the movies she had been in, and Finn wouldn't have wanted anything different. She's stunning and he knows it.

"You look beautiful," he tells her almost breathlessly as they leave his car and walk through the dirt parking lot to the entrance gates. "_You're _beautiful." Rachel dips her head down and looks at her feet as she walks, blushing furiously.

"Thank you," she tells him, looking back up at Finn for a moment. Her hand fumbles aimlessly by her side as she looks for Finn's, causing him to see her fingers grasping for his. He grabs her by the hand and she smiles even wider than before, the red of her face deepening, if possible. "I'm really glad I get to spend the night with you, Finn." She leans into his shoulder slightly and he smiles, causing her to giggle softly. "There's no one else I would spend it with."

Finn feels his heart swell with pride as she can only speak highly of him, making his confidence increase tenfold. "Well, I'm excited to spend it with you too," he tells her, feeling her begin to swing their hands back and forth. He loves it when she does that; it makes him feel like she enjoys holding his hand. He worries that he'll grab her hand too tightly or his palms will get all sweaty because of how nervous he gets around her, but none of that happens. She manages to calm him in a way, all while causing him one of the biggest stresses in his entire life.

He buys her the ticket she needs to get into the fair and she smiles at the ticket holder upon entering, eliciting a smile from him as well. Finn's the only one that notices when he leers at her as she walks away with him, hand still connected to his.

"Did you see that?" Rachel looks up at Finn innocently and furrows her brow, curious.

"No, why?"

"That guy at the ticket booth… he was checking you out, Rach." He feels some surge of jealously through his body and he doesn't know how to explain it, but he decides not to say anything to her. She isn't really his, anyway – no matter how much he wants her to be. She just looks up at him and laughs, shaking her head slightly.

"I don't think he was," she explains, stopping as the two of them reach a small booth towards the side of the walkway. "And even if he was, I wouldn't do anything about it. I have the best date in the world tonight with me, and it clearly isn't him." She smiles, turning to face him and letting him take her other hand in his. "So why would I be concerned?" Rachel giggles and stands up on her toes to press a kiss to Finn's cheek, giggling as she looks up at him. She isn't wearing heels tonight, making their height difference even more astronomical than usual.

Finn just smiles and snakes his arm around her waist, guiding her to the row of food booths on the side of the road. The sun's just beginning to dip on the horizon; the lights of the midway and the sun decorating the night sky. "Do you want anything?" He asks her, holding her close. Rachel examines each of the booths and rests her head against Finn's shoulder, turning in to face him slightly.

"We could share something," she tells him with a smile. He loves how close she is to him; he can feel her heart beat against his sides and feel her chest rise and fall as she inhales and exhales. "I really don't mind."

He smiles and walks her down to find a table, their hands never separating the entire time. He never wants to let go of her. He never wants her to leave him.

:.:.:

"Are you excited for the musical?" Finn asks her, wiping his hands off on his napkin. He had gotten each of them a corn dog, Rachel sipping from a lemonade while the two of them share a basket of fries. He's finished already and Rachel's still sitting pretty, giggling over the jokes he makes and smiling. They've decided that they're going to wait for the sun to set completely, and if they finish before then, they'll go to the fishing dock and feed their cold French fries to the fish.

"I'm very excited," she says proudly, taking another bite of her corn dog. Finn can't help but watch her as she eats and it almost makes him feel bad. The way her lips wrap around her corn dog and the way she giggles as she looks up at him turn him on in a way, and he knows it's bad, but it's not like he hasn't thought about being with her before. She's gorgeous and he spends enough time around her where he's had time to actually process his thoughts about her. That and he's an eighteen year old boy. He's supposed to feel this way about girls he finds attractive. "You know, I used to be in all of the productions my high school put on when I was younger," she says, almost boasting. "I liked them a lot, almost more than the Broadway productions I was in." She giggles, finishing her corn dog and reaching for her drink. "They just had a certain sense of camaraderie, you know? I'm really excited for that to happen with this production." She pauses for a minute and her smile disappears, looking at Finn more seriously than before. "Oh, and I'm sorry about Quinn… Santana told me she was rather shaken by the cast list."

"She was," Finn explains, standing to brush off his pants. "But I think she'll get over it." Rachel stands along with him and he takes her trash, offering to throw it in the garage can for her. "Especially when she sees how great you're going to be." He throws her garbage away and she walks towards him, Finn wrapping his arm around her waist once more and holding her even closer than he had been before, causing her to squeak loudly and laugh, falling into his arms a bit. Finn stops to press a kiss to her head, smelling how sweet her hair is. He finds it suiting that she smells like berries; strawberries and blueberries and raspberries all together.

"I'm excited for you to play your drums," she confesses. "I'm sure you'll be marvelous."

Finn grabs her hand and walks her towards the midway. "I'll win you anything you want," he tells her, pointing to the rigged carnival games that line the pathway. "Just point to what you want and I'll get it for you, Rachel." She smiles and likes the way his arm feels around her waist, especially when he holds her close to his side. It makes her feel like he never wants to let go of her, and it's all she wants. She's never felt like someone's always wanted her there, right by their side. It makes her feel loved, and it's all she can ask for.

She turns to face him and nearly pins him against the garbage can with her kiss, her hands resting on his shoulders and his hands resting on her waist. She loves kissing him, and she would continue if it weren't for the mother looking for a garbage can clearing her throat angrily at the sight of her kissing Finn.

"Sorry," she says quietly, her face turning red as she pulls away from Finn. He just smiles and the two of them move over, Finn pulling Rachel in by the waist to kiss her once more.

"Don't be sorry," he tells her pushing her hair out of her eyes. She just laughs and kisses him again, feeling him lift her off of the ground. She loves him.

:.:.:

The blonde tosses another ball at a target, barely missing this time. She would think that all of her pent up anger would have her winning all of these games, but as usual, she misses each time she needs to hit a target or make a basket.

"Let's go," her older sister finally says, grabbing her by the arm and beginning to walk over to the cotton candy booth. "You're wasting your money, Quinn." The two girls walk over to the booth, Quinn frowning. "I don't know why you're so upset all of a sudden," her sister says, fishing her wallet out of her purse. "Your boyfriend breaks up with you and it's like your entire world is turned upside down."

"He hasn't broken up with me," Quinn argues, close to furious. "Look, just buy the cotton candy and let's go, okay? I don't want to talk about it."

"Whatever you say," her sister says, voice matching the bitter tone in Quinn's. "Let's go do something fun, alright? The moon's up. We could ride the Ferris wheel."

:.:.:

He tells her that he wants to ride the Tunnel of Love, but she just laughs and holds herself closer to him. She doesn't want to be in the dark with him, and she already knows what he has in mind when he starts talking about how badly he wants to ride the Tunnel of Love. She had ridden the ride when she was in high school, and everyone knew the purpose behind the attraction. It wasn't called the Tunnel of Love for nothing, anyway.

"Ride the Ferris wheel with me," she says, pulling him by the hand to the grand centerpiece in the middle of the fair. He had managed to win her a plastic tiara after spending ten dollars making a ring land around the neck of a Coke bottle, which she wore for the first fifteen minutes after until a younger girl stopped her and asked her if she was a princess, to which she said 'no, but you can be if you want,' handing her the tiara and telling her she could have it.

It only made Finn fall for her even harder than before. Rachel's perfect.

She smiles at the ride attendant and Finn assists her into the car of the Ferris wheel, making sure that her dress doesn't catch on the door as the attendant closes them inside. He sits next to her and wraps his arm around her shoulders, Rachel resting her head on his shoulder. She looks up at him and grins, eyes diverting to the enormous moon hanging above them.

"The moon is beautiful tonight," she remarks, snuggling herself even further into the crook of his shoulder.

"It reminds me of you," Finn says, looking down at her. The car rises and begins to reach the top of the circle, Rachel beaming. "But I think you're more beautiful that the moon, Rach. You're always beautiful." She beams and leans up to kiss him, her lips meeting his in a frenzied hurry. All she wants is to kiss him; the feeling she's been craving since their first night when she had sung to him. The car continues to move up the tracks of the Ferris wheel and he kisses her back, one hand moving to her waist and the other moving to her leg, slowly moving up her thigh until he can feel her own hand fall on top of his, her lips parting from his own.

"I love you," she confesses, their car stopping. They've reached the top, the moon shining brightly down on them. Finn stares at her and he doesn't know what to say so he goes back in to kiss her, feeling her move even closer to him, if it's possible. He wants to move his hands all over her, but he knows that he can't because they're in public at the top of a Ferris wheel, and the fact that she wouldn't do anything like that. He's heard stories from Puck about how he got a blowjob from some girl on a roller coaster, but Finn doesn't necessarily believe him. He wouldn't want that with Rachel anyway.

"I love you too, Rach," he tells her in a whisper, going back in to kiss her again. She lets his hand run up under her skirt and up her leg, and she rests her hands against his chest, not wanting her lips to part from his. She's never known anything to feel so right before, and when she kisses Finn it's like everything falls into place perfectly, without her having to question anything.

She parts from him for a moment, feeling tears begin to leak from her eyes. Finn looks at her and instantly feels sad, moving the hand on her leg to wipe the tears from her eyes. "What's wrong?" She just shakes her head and smiles, pressing one last kiss to his lips.

"Nothing," she assures him, smiling weakly. "I just… I just love you so much." They kiss once more and Rachel feels her heart pound in her chest, meeting the same rhythm of Finn's heart. She pulls away from him once more as the ride begins to lower them once more, looking into his eyes deeper than Finn's ever thought possible.

"I want you to be my first," she says, almost in a hushed whisper. "I'm ready." Finn can't believe his ears and holds Rachel closer to him, unsure of what to say.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she says, blinking back her tears. "I'm ready. Tonight, Finn." She kisses him again and he kisses her back, causing her heart to beat faster than she thinks is healthy for her. He smiles and she laughs for a moment, resting her head back on his shoulder. She's never felt happier in her entire life.

:.:.:

From across the way, Quinn sits in a car with her sister, who initially points out Finn and Rachel as 'some couple making out.' It doesn't take the blonde long enough to realize that it's Finn with the brunette girl that he can't take his eyes off of. Rachel, or whatever her name is. They're sitting in the same ride as she and her sister are, and they're making out. Not just making out to say that they've done it, either; full on kissing and touching each other as best as they can within the constraints of a Ferris wheel car.

She can't bring herself to find the right words to use. Her heart falls into her stomach, not knowing where to begin. It's her boyfriend, busy making out with a girl she hates and has managed to ruin her entire life within a month directly across from her.

The ride stalls for a moment and she notices the two of them leaving, walking eagerly towards the exit gates. There's no use of trying to follow them. She feels absolutely horrible. Quinn Fabray's entire world has crashed down around her, and there's nothing she can do about it.


	12. The First Time

**Thank you guys so much for continuing to read and review this story! I've really enjoyed writing it and as a sidebar, I've started to plan out my next story that I hope to work on this summer. I'm really excited for you guys to read it! If you noticed, I changed the rating of this story to M – I hope you all enjoy the only smut chapter you'll be getting. :) **

Finn doesn't know what to do. He's never been put in the situation that Rachel's put him in, but he knows that it's one of the most important things that a girl goes through. He knows that it's not going to be the way it was for him when he lost his virginity. For him it was all of this build up to something that ended up being so easy, but he knows that it won't be the same way with Rachel. She's such an emotional girl already, and just plugging in the emotional overload of sex would probably make her even more of an emotional mess than she already is. He loves that about her, though. He loves how emotional and how expressive she is; it must come with being an actress. He loves her for every fiber of her being, and he wants her. He wants her more than anything he's ever wanted before.

:.:.:

She doesn't know if she wants to tell Kurt or not. He's not in the Hudson-Hummel household and instead he's out on a date – the date Rachel had set him up on with Blaine. She knows that she probably should let him know and maybe even ask him for advice, but what would he know? Kurt's a virgin, as is she. She should be a good friend and ask him about something, or at least tell him that she's about to take a very serious step with his own brother, but she doesn't. She wants it to stay a secret. The house is empty, besides the two lovebirds who have parted to separate locations in the house. Rachel's retreated to the basement where Kurt's room is, standing in front of the closet where her collection of clothes are. She notices a white nightdress towards the back of the closet, letting her fingers run against the soft, sheer fabric.

She wants to make sure that she looks absolutely perfect for him. There's no one else she would rather do any of this with, and it's only fair that she looks as best as she possibly can.

:.:.:

He sits on the edge of the bed in his room, bouncing his knee as he waits for her. He's afraid that he's going to ruin something somehow, which is the last thing he wants. Finn doesn't know how to take the girl he loves so much and make sure that everything for her is extraordinarily perfect, simply because he's never been in this position before. He thinks that maybe he should get on his computer really quick and Google search something about 'How to Take a Girls Virginity,' but before the thought can even fully process in his mind, he sees the door to his room begin to slowly open, the light from the hallway flooding his room.

Finn doesn't think he's ever seen Rachel look so beautiful.

He's only turned the lamp in the corner of his room on, the light from the hallway illuminating the rest of the room until she closes the door. She looks like some kind of angel with the light glowing behind her, slowly walking towards the bed. She's wearing a thin, lacy nightgown that sways with each step she takes, the white fabric contrasting against her olive skin and dark hair. She's changed that, too; letting her hair fall down her back and shoulders in the natural waves she has without having Kurt ambush her with a curling iron and a can of hairspray. Finn lets his jaw hang slack slightly and it causes Rachel to smile, reaching him on the bed and causing him to stand at attention.

"It's okay," she says, reaching up to cup his face in her hand. "I'm okay, Finn. I promise." She moves her hands away from his face and to his shoulders, feeling the definition of the muscles in his chest. "You're so strong, Finn…" Her voice trails off, her nerves beginning to get the best of her. She traces a figure against his chest and stops, looking up at him with the same giant doe eyes he had fallen in love with before meeting her. "I can feel your heart beating," she says, her voice soft. Finn smiles and runs a hand through her hair, making her smile slightly.

"I don't feel anything," he says, moving his hands to the right side of his chest. Rachel just smiles and laughs slightly, moving his hands over to the other side of his chest.

"That's because your heart is on _this _side," she says, laughing slightly. Finn takes her hands and holds them in his own, looking into her eyes. He can't explain what his feelings are like at the moment; with one half of him feeling like the regular teenage boy and obsessing over the fact that he gets to see her naked and have sex with her, and the other half of him feeling like a mature human being, a side he gets to see more and more of lately. He loves her and he knows that this is the best way to show someone that you love them. That was one thing he didn't feel like happened between him and Quinn. Now all he wants is to make sure that Rachel feels as loved as possible during this.

"You look amazing, Rachel," he tells her, both of their voices hushed by this point. She doesn't understand why she's keeping her voice so quiet; there's no one in the house but the two of them. Kurt had gone out on a date with Blaine and Finn's parents were out to dinner with their friends. She smiles and rests her head against his chest, sighing deeply.

"I'm ready," she says, her voice still soft. Finn looks down at her and strokes her hair, her face still pressed into his chest. She giggles softly and Finn takes her by the hand, guiding her onto the bed. She looks up at him and bites down on her lower lip, looking at Finn like he's holding her entire life in his hands. "I just… I don't know how to start." She's been told all about sex and intercourse and when the right time is. When she received her first pain of womanhood at thirteen, her mother sat her down and explained to her what sex was and how it worked, finally clearing up the whole myth that the stork brought her to her doorstep when she was a baby (which Rachel was beginning to disbelieve already).

She just never would have guessed that she would be in the position now, before marriage. It doesn't make her feel like she's doing anything wrong; simply because she knows that she's in love with Finn. She trusts him and she knows that he loves her, and that's all that matters. Besides, the idea of abstinence isn't the same now as it was when she was eighteen. More and more girls seem to have sex before marriage now, some even before they graduate from high school. It doesn't have as much shock value as Rachel thinks it would. Her grandmother would be furious if she knew that her grandbaby was going to have sex with a boy she wasn't married to, but her grandmother was. n't here right now. The stigma behind giving herself to Finn doesn't exist anymore.

Finn feels like he owes her something; since he's the experienced one of out of the two. He's had sex – plenty of times, actually. He knows what's supposed to happen and how he's supposed to feel, which is part of what makes him excited. He just isn't sure as to how Rachel is going to feel, which the frightening part is.

"It's okay," he tells her, standing before her as she sits on the bed. "I know… I know how to do everything." He doesn't know how to say anything without sounding painfully awkward, but the way Rachel looks up at him with her big brown eyes somehow makes him feel like he's not being awkward at all. "You just need to let me know when you feel uncomfortable," he tells her, and she nods.

He climbs onto the bed and she lies down, her head hitting the pillows (she knows about this part). Finn lies down next to her, being as close as he can to her and props himself up on his elbows, Rachel looking up at him. No matter how hard she tries to hide it he can still see the tinges of fear in her eyes and the way she shivers slightly each time he touches her.

There aren't many words exchanged between them; the only sounds in the room coming from Rachel's labored breathing beneath him. He kisses her and she kisses him back, his hands moving around her waist and feeling the definition of her hips beneath her nightgown. He moves his hands up to her arms, shifting over slightly so his fingers can reach the little buttons that run down the chest of her nightgown to the end of the bodice, but she whimpers and places her hands on top of his, shaking her head slightly as she continues to look at Finn with her enormous eyes.

She stops him with another kiss, her hands moving around to his back. He can feel her hands shaking, and he wonders if this is the right idea to begin with. He looks at her and she pauses to look into his eyes, pulling away from his kiss.

She likes how there doesn't have to be anything said between them; how they can communicate with simply a look. She nods and he presses one lasting kiss to her lips, his fingers beginning to work at the buttons of her nightgown. He peels back the fabric of her nightgown and she whimpers again, craning her neck up to kiss him. Her hands hold on to either sides of his face and he looks at how frightened she looks, yet at the same time she looks like she's perfectly ready for what they're about to do.

Rachel sits up slightly in the bed and Finn pushes the straps of her nightgown down her shoulders, letting the fabric bunch around her waist. He doesn't want to stare because he knows it will make her feel self-conscious, but he can't help it. Her boobs are right there, staring him in the face. He looks back up to her face and her cheeks redden, dipping her head down slightly.

"Hey," he tells her, using a finger to tip her head up. "You're beautiful." He leans in to press a kiss to her cheek, kissing down her jaw and onto her neck, causing Rachel to tip her head back and make these little noises that only make him want to continue, knowing it makes her feel good at some level. His lips travel down her collarbone to her chest, pressing delicate kisses to her breasts, feeling her fingers rooted in his hair.

"Finn, I…" But her voice cuts off and she lets out another wanton moan, feeling his kisses move from her neck to her shoulders, moving his hands up to take his breasts in his hands and beginning to suck on them, making her tip her head back and bite down on her lip to keep herself from making too much noise. He seems to respond to her cries and whimpers and moans, however; his kisses progressively getting better the more noise she makes.

He looks back up at her and she smiles, leaning back down on the bed again. Finn moves up to undo the rest of the buttons on her nightgown, peeling away the two halves of the fabric and dropping it to the floor beside his bed. He can't comprehend how beautiful she looks lying on his bed and waiting for him, dressed in nothing but these skimpy little underwear that he's sure Santana's picked out for her, but he doesn't care. His fingers run over her hips and she shivers, looking up at him again with the same wide eyes as before.

"Do you have a condom?" She asks, remembering what Santana had told her earlier. Finn nods and reaches over to his nightstand, opening up a drawer and magically coming back with a little foil wrapper between his fingers. He stands up on his knees in the bed and removes his shirt, wanting to feel equal with Rachel, who's lying on the bed in nothing but her underwear.

"Santana put me on some kind of pill," she says softly, watching Finn as he undoes his belt, leaning back in to kiss her. Her words are caught up in his lips and she can't finish her thoughts, eyes falling shut as she feels his lips against her neck once more. She stops, however, pulling away quickly after she feels something between his legs. She looks at Finn like she's afraid, but she's more surprised than anything else.

"What's that?" She asks, pointing down between his legs. Finn laughs slightly, brushing her hair away from her face.

"It's okay, Rach." He presses a kiss to her lips. "Are you ready?" She nods slowly and he lies back down with her, this time with the two of them on their sides, Finn's arms wrapped around Rachel. She looks at him and smiles sheepishly, moving her hands down below the bed sheet he pulls over them and finds the waistband of his pants, doing her best to undo the button and zipper holding them to his hips. She manages to shuck his pants and they rest at the edge of the mattress underneath the sheets, her hands fumbling nervously and not knowing what to do next. Finn moves up onto his knees and removes his boxers, Rachel looking up at him and seeing his cheeks redden slightly as he stands in front of her, completely in the buff. He begins to put the condom on but she stops him, grabbing his wrist.

"No," she tells him, her voice sounding sweeter than ever. "You don't have to use one. It's okay."

"Are you sure?"

She nods, looking into his eyes. "Santana put me on some kind of pill… she said that it helps to not get me pregnant, or something." He laughs a bit, letting his hand fall against her face.

"The pill," he corrects her, smiling. He remembers that she didn't have the pill in the 1940's, and smiles even wider. "Are you ready?"

She looks up at him from the bed, her chest heaving as she breathes. "Yes," she whimpers, feeling his hands against her waist. He lets his fingers curl underneath the lace of her underwear and slowly pulls it down around her legs, Rachel lifting her hips up in the air. He tugs it off of her feet and places kisses on her calves, her legs still closed together.

"You have to open your legs for me, baby." Rachel looks up at him and does as she's told, spreading her legs apart for him and seeing Finn's eyes fall between her legs, causing her to blush. He can't believe how beautiful she looks; the dull light from the corner of his room casting their shadows on the wall and making her look absolutely stunning; her hair splayed out around her on the pillow and her breathing slow and labored, like she's preparing for something to happen.

"Beautiful," he murmurs, unable to form a complete sentence. He moves in-between her legs and positions himself against her, letting a hand slink down between her legs. He runs a finger against the wetness pooling at her center and she gasps, eyes widening. He just looks at her with this trustworthy look and she lets her eyes fall shut, hands on either side of her, gripping the bed sheets in tight little handfuls. He slides his finger against her again, and God, she's so wet, inserting his finger into her slick channel. He feels her tense up around him and her eyes pinch shut, causing Finn to remove his fingers from her.

"No," she murmurs, her voice catching on a breath. "No, it's okay. I promise."

He waits for a moment and looks at Rachel, this look of determination stuck to her face. He listens to her and repeats his actions, slipping his index and middle finger into her and feeling her clench around him, beginning to feel like he would lose it soon if he didn't pace himself. She gasps and looks at him, eyes wide like she's expecting the world from him. She whimpers and gasps slightly, her hands moving up and fingers threading through Finn's hair, keening as he removes his hand from between her legs.

"Finn," she says, her voice feather light. "I want you. All of you." He looks at her and she nods her head vigorously, biting down on her lip. He adjusts himself to fit her once more and Rachel tips her head back on the bed, her entire body flushing as he enters her. She always knew it was supposed to hurt, but it's a different pain than she had expected – a sharp, intense pain that makes her eyes pinch shut and her face turn red, and Finn stops immediately.

"Are you alright?" He asks, moving his hand down to stroke her face. She nods, tears welling in her eyes as she touches his hand.

"Please, Finn, don't stop…" Her voice trails off as Finn carefully thrusts into her once more, her hands moving up around his strong, broad back, nails digging into his skin. He goes painfully slow, almost adding to the pain she has on her own, but he doesn't want to ruin this for her. It's hard enough for him to go as slow as he is, because she's just so hot and impossibly tight, and he can't even handle looking at her, because he knows that he'll blow it if he looks into her eyes one more time. He feels her begin to tense up around him and she makes these little squeaking noises that sound like she's really enjoying everything he's doing, so he continues. He's never felt so in love or so connected to someone in his entire life.

"Open your eyes, Rach," he whispers, looking down at her. Her head is wretched back and the veins in her neck are clear to see, Finn able to see a sheen of sweat forming on her brow. "Please. I just need to see you." She looks up at him and opens her eyes, her mouth hanging open as she looks at him.

"I love you," she says, fighting back tears. She doesn't know if they're from the pain or from her emotions anymore. Her hands move up to touch his face and he feels a shiver go down his spine, the familiar feeling coming back to him. His eyes close and his mouth forms the same 'o' it always does and he spills into her, causing Rachel to sit up slightly and look at him with a worried look on her face.

"Finn? Are you alright?" He removes himself from her and leans in to kiss her, his hand finding its way onto her waist. He smiles and rests his forehead against hers, Rachel looking up at him with a shocked look stuck to her face.

"Never been better," he tells her, placing a hand to the side of her face. She leans in to kiss him once more and feels something different between her legs, sticking her hand down between them.

"What's this?" She asks him nervously, showing Finn her fingers. He looks at her with a small, sheepish smile, blushing fervently.

"That's um… that's me," he tells her, Rachel wiping her fingers off on his sheets. "It's like a way to show how much I love you, Rachel." She giggles nervously, blushing as she looks at him. "Because, y'know, I really do love you, Rach. You're perfect." She kisses him again, holding his face against hers as she looks at him.

"I love you so much, Finn," she says sweetly, tears welling in her eyes. He picks her up so that she sits in his lap, holding her in his arms. She peppers kisses across his face and rests her hands on his shoulders, letting her head rest in the crook of his shoulders. "I never, ever want to leave you." She wraps her arms around him and hugs him, never wanting to let him go. She loves him so much, and she wonders if she really does get to stay with him if she loves him and he loves her. She can't think of a better way to profess their love to each other, so maybe this is it. Maybe because of this she gets to stay, and be with Finn forever.

Finn just smiles at her and presses one last kiss to her lips, pulling her off of his lap and reaching for his boxers. "Do you want me to clean you up?" She just looks at him and nods, batting her eyes at him as he walks into the hallway for a moment. She sits on the bed and crosses her legs again, trying to remain as modest as possible, but she doesn't mind anymore. She's been fighting for so long to stay the way she is, and now she's his; his beautiful girl who he gets to touch and kiss and see in her most vulnerable state. It's empowering, in a way. For as much as she loves him, the fact that she gets to be with him and only him makes the feeling that much better.

Finn returns into the room with a wet rag, his hands shaking a bit. He doesn't fully understand what he meant when he had asked her whether or not she wanted to be cleaned up, but he figures he can turn it into something romantic. She's awfully hot and sweaty, too, so maybe he can just clean her up that way.

He notices her sitting in the dull glow of his room on the bed and he can't help but mutter out a soft little 'wow' that only he can hear, because she looks like something out of a wet dream he's had. "Rachel," he finally says, getting her attention and causing her to look at him. "You look… amazing," he breathes, walking towards her. He finally knows what he wants to do with her. It only makes sense, after all. She deserves to feel just as good as he did when they were finished doing the actual deed of having sex.

He climbs into bed with her once more and worships her with kisses, starting on her lips and moving their way over her neck, her breasts, her stomach, her hips and finally her legs, lifting them up one by one and pressing kisses to her calves, resting them on his shoulders. She's already breathing hard and tilts her head up to try and see him, but she can't, causing her head to fall back onto Finn's pillow. He begins kissing the inside of her thigh and she whimpers, making him pause and he looks between her legs, feeling himself grow hard for her once more. She's beautiful, and all he wants to do is make her feel good. She whimpers something soft, along the lines of 'Yes,' and he lets his tongue slip out and touches it to her, feeling her shudder to his touch. He feels better than he's ever felt before, with the smell of her and the feel of her and the taste of her… it's the best thing he's ever felt.

He starts slow; with gentle licks and kisses so as not to make her feel rushed into anything. She feels so much more relaxed than she did a few minutes ago, his tongue against her making her breathing become deeper and her soft moans to become louder, until they practically fill his room. He continues to have at her, losing himself in what he's doing. She gasps and moans and cries out his name, raking her fingers through his hair. His face becomes buried in her and he makes it his goal to drive her absolutely wild, his hands wrapping around her hips. He continues to kiss her there until he finds a small little nub right above her slit and he laps at it with his tongue, causing her to moan louder than before, so he licks at it again, sucking at it slightly and moving a finger up to rub it, making her shudder and squeal his name in delight. It only takes him a few last licks to make her surrender to him, screaming one last high-pitched scream of pure delight, her hands still buried in his hair. She tremors in his hands and he looks up at her, watching her attempt to catch her breath, her chest heaving up and down dramatically. He crawls over on top of her and she smiles, Finn licking his lips and not able to get the taste of Rachel off of them.

"You're so beautiful," he tells her, lying down next to her and kissing her. "The most beautiful girl in the entire world." Rachel blushes and leans in to kiss him, cupping his face in her hands. "I never want you to leave, Rachel. I want to stay with you, always." She burrows herself into his arms and sighs, feeling Finn usher her underneath the sheets and pull his comforter over them. She doesn't know what time it is and she doesn't care. Her eyes fall shut and he kisses her on the head, smelling her hair. She still smells like berries, despite all she's been through.

She's perfect.


	13. Careful Confessions

It's late, really late. Finn hasn't allowed Rachel to fall asleep just yet, because he doesn't want to be caught with her in his bed when his parents or Kurt comes home. He figures he can always make her stay the night with Kurt and make up some lie that Santana was having Brittany spend the night at her own house, which Kurt would easily believe. Rachel remains in his arms, the both of them wrapped up in the bed sheets, his fingers tracing figures over her shoulders. Her hands still rest against his chest and she looks up at him, their conversation still kept to a hushed whisper.

"You should go back downstairs," Finn tells her, running a hand over her hair. Rachel sighs happily and nuzzles his chest, giggling. "I think my mom and Burt are going to be home soon." He can only imagine what his mom would say if she were to see him lying in bed with Rachel, both of them completely naked minus his boxers. Rachel just smiles and lets her eyes fall shut, snuggling herself into his arms even further.

"I want to stay with you," she says, her voice quiet. "I love you, Finn." He can't wrap his head around how much he loves her. He feels so lucky to be in love with one of the most beautiful girls he's ever seen, and he just doesn't understand how he's so lucky to have her love him back. She's precious in everything she does; whether it's how she smiles or the way her eyes light up every time she sees him or when she's at rehearsal and she's dancing around and singing, her voice this beautiful, clarion sound that makes him almost forget what cadence he's supposed to be playing on his drums. It scares him for what's going to happen when the performances actually roll around, and he's going to have to look up out into the audience and only see her, singing her little heart out for all of Ohio to hear.

"I love you too, Rach," he tells her, kissing the top of her head. He smiles and she makes a small noise that reminds him of the noises she's made earlier in the night, causing a satisfied smirk to cross his lips. He can't help the fact that he feels proud. The first time he had sex with Quinn, he never made her do anything like that. Come to think of it, he didn't make Quinn do anything like Rachel did when they had sex except once. At least not on his own. The manly, caveman instinct in him makes his heart swell with pride when he realizes that he's made Rachel's first time the best time. He wouldn't have it any other way, though. He loves her. He looks down at her and notices how at peace she seems, burrowing his nose in her hair again. "How do you feel?"

She looks up at him and shrugs slightly, her smile still on her lips. "I feel fine," she says. "A bit sore, I suppose, but I've been told that's supposed to happen. I just…" Her voice breaks, Finn noticing her biting down on her lip and blushing slightly. "I just never expected you to be so _big._" Finn smiles a bit as she explains everything to him. He loves how naïve and innocent she is; it allows her to say things most girls wouldn't dare say out loud. "I was afraid you wouldn't fit." She continues to blush and Finn smiles, laughing a bit to himself.

"You were perfect, baby," he tells her, kissing her head once more. "I've never really felt in love with someone before while doing that the way I did about being with you." She smiles and feels tears come to her eyes, sobbing softly to herself. It doesn't take long for Finn to notice, however. "Rach, what's wrong?" He wipes her tears from her eyes and she just smiles, looking into his eyes.

"It's nothing, it's just… I love you so much." She shifts in his arms so she can wrap her arms around him, peppering his face with kisses. She sighs, wiping her eyes. "Finn, I have to tell you something."

Finn feels his heart rise to his throat. He immediately starts to panic, hoping nothing's wrong with her. Maybe she had been lying about Santana putting her on birth control or she really wasn't a girl from the movies, and she was just some creepy stalker girl instead. Or worse, she could be an alien. Although, it would be pretty neat to have sex with an alien girl – it wasn't like Puck had ever done that before. He pushes all of his juvenile thoughts to the back of his head, however, and looks at her. "What is it, babe?"

She swallows thickly and looks into his eyes, just realizing now how he has these little freckles on his nose that look even cuter when he smiles at her. "Do you want to know the real reason why I'm here?" Finn just looks at her, confused.

"I thought you were sucked into here from the TV? You know, like, teleported or something?" Rachel smiles and laughs a bit. She loves it when he tries to describe things to her; he always ends up sounding like a little kid.

"I was, I suppose, sort of… but do you want to know why I'm here?"

"Why?"

She swallows again, letting her eyes fall shut. Finn's always been the one to know about her, but he hasn't known about Blaine. She already knows that she needs to tell Kurt and Santana at some point, but Finn seems like a good start. She knows him the best and is the closest to him. "You know my friend, Blaine? Well, he's like me. We're both not from here." Finn looks at Rachel, confused. "But he's just like me in the sense that we both need the same thing to get out of here," she says, her voice shaking slightly.

"What do you need?" Finn asks, concerned. "Tell me what it is, Rachel, and I'll get it for you. I'll get the moon for you, Rachel." She laughs a bit and strokes his face, shaking her head to the side.

"I needed to find true love."

Finn feels his stomach twist up into a million knots and his heart fall from his chest. At first he's confused, not sure as to why Rachel's bringing this up, but then he figures it out. It always takes Finn longer to figure things out, but he manages to do it this time. "Rachel, I…" He looks into her eyes and sees all of the hope in the world right there, glimmering in the big brown eyes that he's fallen in love with. "You love me that much?"

She nods sweetly, pouting a bit. "You're the only one I've ever fallen in love with, Finn – like really, truly fallen in love with. You're my first." She leans up to kiss him, only it's not like any of the other kisses she's given him. Her lips feel so soft against his and all of her kisses are the sweetest things in the entire world. She rubs her hands against his chest and pulls away from him, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. "I don't know if I can find the right words to use to tell you how much I love you. I _love _you, Finn," she confesses, looking into his eyes. "And if you love me back just as much as I love you, I get to stay here with you," she says, cupping his face in her hands. "I get to stay here with you and Kurt and Santana and Brittany and everyone else. Wouldn't you love that?"

Finn just looks at her, confused. He still doesn't understand what she's talking about, but he does know that he trusts her. He loves her too much to believe that she's lying to her. "Rachel, I love you," he tells her, looking her in the eyes and taking her by the hand. "I love you so much, Rachel, and I just… I never want to lose you." He thinks about it for a moment, wondering about what he should say next. "I do love you. I think you're beautiful and funny and there's no one I would rather spend my time with. So if you get to stay here because I love you, then I'm the luckiest guy in the entire world, because there's no one else I would want to spend my time with." Rachel gasps a little bit, her smile consuming her face. Finn sits up in bed and brings Rachel with him, eliciting a squeal from her as she sits up with him, in his arms. He kisses her and she laughs and she looks at the alarm clock behind him, noting the time.

"Finn," she says, still whispering. "It's one in the morning." Finn just looks at her with a smile, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

"I think Kurt's going to be home soon," he tells her, pressing a kiss to her jaw. Rachel giggles and looks down at him, eyes scanning the floor for her nightgown. Finn looks at her for a moment, eyebrows knitting together. "Wait… is that why you sent Kurt out on a date with your friend? Blaine?" Rachel looks at him coyly and giggles, feeling his hands rest around her waist.

"Blaine finds him absolutely darling," she admits, looking at Finn. "Besides, Kurt's told me that he fancies Blaine as well, so I figured it would be a good idea. Besides, Blaine needs love just as much as I do. I don't want to stay here and have him go back." Finn laughs with her and rolls his eyes slightly, going back in to kiss her. She's more comfortable with him seeing her now, her breasts pressed into his chest and his eyes locked in on her eyes, making her laugh.

"You should go downstairs," he reminds her, reaching for her underwear near the foot of the bed. He presses one last kiss to her lips and she giggles, wrapping her arms over his shoulders. "I love you, Rachel." She smiles and runs a hand through his hair.

"And I love you too, Finn." She gets out of his lap and stands to put her underwear back on, Finn taking a moment to notice how cute her butt is; he had never really noticed before. She manages to get her nightgown back on and buttons it back up again, turning back around and noticing that Finn's been staring at her the entire time.

"It's impolite to stare, Mr. Hudson," she scolds him playfully, making him smile. She makes a face at him and he laughs, looking at her as she walks towards the door. "If you want something to look at, I'll give you something to look at." Finn feels his jaw hang loose and he looks at her because he knows that she's kidding, but judging by the coy little smirk played out on her lips, he wonders if she's not, making him smile slightly to himself.

"I'll see you in the morning," he starts, watching her open the door and head into the hallway. "Oh, and Rach?" She looks over her shoulder at him, her eyes meeting his and causing his heart to flutter. "I love you."

She giggles and smiles at him, holding on to the door frame. "I love you too, Finn."

And she does love him. It's the first time she's ever loved someone this much.

:.:.:

Kurt decides to take her out for coffee the next morning. He's pleasantly surprised when he sees her asleep in the big bean bag chair in the corner of his room when he walks in the night before, dressed in the little nightgown Santana had gotten for her that day she took her into Victoria's Secret and Rachel spent more time asking the ladies that worked there who Victoria was and what her secret was. He's formed a liking to her for the amount of time she's been with them, and part of him knows that she's not going to be with them forever.

Unless what Blaine told him the night before is actually true.

"So, how was your date last night?" Rachel asks Kurt as the two of them sit down, her hands wrapping around her cup of coffee. "Blaine's just the garb, hmm?" Kurt looks at Rachel with a quirked eyebrow, causing her to reevaluate her choice of words. "Oh, well, I mean, he's wonderful." She sighs and looks over at Kurt, who offers Rachel a small smile. "What did you do?"

"Well, we went to the bowling alley," he tells her, smiling slightly. "But they didn't have any shoes in his size, so I offered him a trip to the golf course, but then he went on to talk about how he didn't golf anymore."

"Oh," Rachel says, choking slightly on her coffee. "He must have told you, didn't he?" She giggles a bit to herself before looking back at him. "Blaine had a horrible accident with a golf club when we were younger… he never speaks of it and because of it refuses to play any kind of game with a putter. You should have seen him at the croquet games we had one summer… they were the cat's pajamas!"

Kurt pauses, looking at Rachel as she looks back at him. "Rachel," he begins, looking down at his cup. "Look, I don't know how to say this, and I don't want to make you upset, because that's really the last thing I want to do, but…" His voice trails off and he drums his fingers against the table, sighing. "Look, Rach, I don't think you've been completely honest about your past." Rachel feels her heart lodge itself in her throat. Finn couldn't have said anything. He better not have. She thought that they were supposed to be in this together, and Finn's the only person that knows her secret. Besides, everyone else would just think that she was a freak if she ran around claiming that she was, in fact born on December 18th, 1927.

"W-what are you talking about?" She asks nervously, taking another drink from her coffee. "Kurt, I don't know what you're trying to say, but I've-"

"Been lying this entire time," he interrupts, causing Rachel's face to flush a bright red. "Look, Rachel, Blaine told me all about it last night." Rachel doesn't know what to say. Parts of her wants to leave and run down the street and find her way back to the apartment Blaine keeps and swat him with a newspaper, and the other half of her doesn't. Blaine would never throw her under the bus like this. If he truly had explained everything to Kurt, he would have explained everything as plainly to him as he did to her.

Her voice is quiet as she brings her coffee cup up to her lips, muffling her words. "What did he tell you?"

Kurt laughs a bit before beginning to explain himself, crossing his arms over his chest. "Well, at first I thought he was lying, because let's face it, Rach – it's not something normal!" He laughs a bit and Rachel narrows her eyes, beginning to feel self-conscious beneath his gaze. "He told me that you, the both of you, are time travelers, I guess. Almost in a freaky, _Doctor Who_ sort of way, but the way he explained it, he died in an apartment fire when he was in his thirties or something. He was set to marry some girl who was the daughter of a movie producer who was disgusting, and I-"

"Sugar," Rachel interrupts, looking at Kurt. She still doesn't believe all of this. She had always expected someone that knew about Blaine and her to run and call the authorities and make a scene about it. She's glad it's Kurt that isn't making a big deal out of something she doesn't consider to be a big deal at all.

"Yes," he says, remembering the name. "Anyway, when he died, he didn't go to heaven, he just stayed here – or he _returned, _he said, in the form of himself when he was his happiest – eighteen. So now he's supposed to find his true love and if he does, he gets to stay here. Forever. Well, until he dies, but you know." Kurt looks at Rachel as she stares back at him, a smug look crossing his face. "You're the same way, or at least he said you were. No wonder you can't drive a car." Rachel giggles a bit over this, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "He said that you needed to find someone to love you too, but that you were a bit easier… you've already found someone that you've fallen in love with?" Rachel blushes and feels her stomach do what she thinks is a backflip, and she begins to worry her bottom lip nervously.

"Maybe," she tells Kurt, not sure as to whether or not she should trust him. "How do you know what Blaine told you is true?" She looks at him skeptically for a moment, sighing. "For all you know, we're just method actors."

"Because," Kurt says, beginning to sound a bit nervous himself. "I really like him. I trust him, that's for sure. And because I love you," he tells Rachel, causing her to blush a bit. "I love you so much, Rachel, and I would never want to see something hurt you like whatever's caused you to end up in the situation you and Blaine are in." She looks down into her lap and sighs nervously. "Besides, I think you and I both know that you've already fallen in love with someone – and I can tell you that if I'm right in my guessing, he loves you back just as much as you love him."

Rachel looks at Kurt and her smile begins to grow once she sees the smile on his own face. It makes her think of how Finn smiles at her; how his nose with the little freckles scrunches up on his face and he has these dimples that make her melt a bit, and how his smiles always seem to be a precursor to another utterance of 'I love you, Rachel Berry' followed by a kiss that makes her forget her own name for a moment. "He does love me," she says, her voice quiet. "I know he does. He's told me so." Kurt lets his mouth hang open slightly and he looks at her, giggling.

"My brother loves you? Rachel, that's great! What did he say?" Rachel looks at Kurt and begins playing with the fabric of her skirt in her hands, smiling into her lap.

"Well, he took me to the fair, and we were on the Ferris wheel, and I told him that I loved him, so he… he kind of told me that he loved me too." She wonders if she should continue the story from the night before and she figures she might as well; there's really no other way around it. "Do you want to know the real reason why I spent the night at your house last night, Kurt?"

Kurt looks at Rachel with narrowed eyes for a moment, processing her words. "Did you… Finn didn't… oh my God, Rachel!" His hands fly up to his mouth and Rachel laughs a bit, worrying her hair slightly. "Well, I'm sure that was… wonderful. Yes, wonderful." Rachel realizes that she's just told him about his own brother (step-brother, but not that it mattered) and his sex life, so she figures it might be a bit unnerving for him. "You two used all proper precautionary measures, right?" Rachel nods and looks at Kurt with stars in her eyes.

"Of course," she prompts. "But it wasn't so much the physical act of it that I loved, it was being able to say that I actually lost my virginity to someone I loved. That I _love, _I mean. He loves me and I love him, and I couldn't ask for anything more. I get to stay and be with him forever, Kurt – do you know how much that means to me?"

"Oh, I can imagine," Kurt says wistfully. "Don't we all wish we could have romances like yours, Miss Rachel Berry?" Rachel giggles along with him and blushes, reaching out across the table and linking her hands with his.

"Did Blaine say anything about how I'll know whether or not I get to stay? I keep on meaning to ask him, but he's always busy… he's always talking about you."

Kurt nods his head, swallowing thickly. "He did," he says softly. Kurt still can't wrap his head around the fact that Blaine likes him – or at least Rachel's told him that he does. "He said that you have to watch one of the movies you were in, and check for yourself in them, and for your name in the credits. If you're not there, you get to stay, but if you are… I don't remember if he said you go back to where you were, or what. It was weird. But you've found him, Rach. I don't think anything bad will happen."

Rachel beams at Kurt and giggles a bit, unable to control how happy she is. "I know," she manages to get out, shaking her head slightly. "And I wish the best for you and Blaine. He really does like you, Kurt. And I'm sure in the shows coming next week… I really think he loves you."

"Well, we'll let everything happen in due time," he says, grabbing Rachel's hands again. "I'm just happy for you. You get to stay with us after all!" Rachel smiles and looks at Kurt with a grin.

"You still need to tell me all about your date with Blaine. I want to hear all about it!"


	14. A Lover's Quarrel

**Hi everyone! This is a shorter chapter just because it helps lead up to the next chapter, which is going to be my favorite! This story will be wrapping up soon and I'm really grateful for everyone who's reviewed, alerted and favorite this story/me during this. It's really helped me grow as a writer and I definitely take your comments into consideration while writing! Thanks again!**

"Look, I know we haven't exactly been friends lately, but I want to talk to you guys." Quinn looks up from her bowl of potato chips and reaches for the remote. "I think that we've grown apart and I want us to be friends again. If that's what we were to begin with." She turns the volume down on the TV and Santana and Brittany both sit up, Santana shooting Quinn a death glare.

"Do you ever wonder why we might have grown apart, Quinn? I mean, it's not like you've really been the best of people lately." The blonde narrows her eyes and looks at Santana, looking angrier than ever.

"It's not like I've been in the wrong," she argues, crossing her arms over her chest. "It's just… ever since that Rachel girl got here, everything's turned to-"

"See, that's where I want you to stop," Santana quips, her voice becoming sharper. Brittany looks up at the two from her position on the floor and her eye widen, shocked by how they're both getting so angry so quickly. "Ever since Rachel's been here, all you've been able to do complain about how much you hate her, how ugly you think she is, whatever. You probably haven't even had one conversation with her," Santana argues.

Quinn looks at her and raises her voice slightly. "Ever since she's gotten here, she's ruined everything," the blonde begins to explain. "Everyone acts like she's this great thing that happened to all of us, but she's just managed to destroy everything for me, Santana. The show hasn't even started yet and she's already wrecked all of it." The blonde throws her hands up in the air in frustration and looks at Santana, anger raging in her eyes.

"You're acting like a pampered little baby, Quinn Fabray," Santana reminds her snidely. "Look, I kind of felt the same way about Rachel when she first got here too. But the more time you spend around her, the better she gets. She has good intentions, Quinn."

"She's really nice," Brittany says, quietly managing to interrupt and rip off a piece of her Twizzlers braid with her teeth. "She taught me how to make these cupcakes that have little frosting flowers on them… you should spend more time around her, Quinn. She even knit Lord Tubbington a sweater."

Quinn looks at Santana and Brittany like they're crazy, exclaiming a bit. "You guys," she begins, frustration oozing from every pore. "She took my boyfriend away from me. I saw-" Her voice drops off and she feels a lump form in her throat, swallowing thickly before speaking again. "The other night, when I went to the fair with my parents and sister, Finn was there. With her." Santana and Brittany look at one another and make the same face as Quinn looks down into her lap, her emotions beginning to get the best of her. "They were on the Ferris wheel together and she kissed him." Tears begin to well in her eyes and her voice becomes lower, scratching against her throat as she tries to speak. "I know it's selfish of me to just think about myself and how I feel during all of this, but I loved him, you guys." She sighs, regaining her composure somewhat and a heavy sigh escaping her. "She just waltzes in here and has the entire town cater to her on a silver platter," she mutters. "I really thought I would be getting out of here with Finn," she says. "She's ruined everything."

Santana looks at Quinn with a smug look on her face, managing hesitate an eye roll. For as much as she's grown apart from Quinn in the past few months, seeing her in such a vulnerable position makes her feel like she's not as horrible as she comes across most of the time. Maybe hearing her talk makes her realize just how fragile she is.

"Look, Quinn, I know things suck, okay?" Santana moves over to actually look at the blonde, who's looking up from her lap and at Santana. "But the way you handle things… it's not like Rachel did all of this intentionally. That's something I would do. She's just… if you talked to her, Quinn, you'd realize just how much she loves him. She _loves _him, Quinn, and I just… she gives him the love that you never gave him when you were together. All Rachel can talk about is how much she loves him and how much he loves her… and he's happy, Quinn. He's happier than I've seen him in a long time." Quinn looks down into her lap again, hands clenching in fists.

"Did she tell you this?"

Santana just looks at Brittany and back to Quinn, almost afraid to say anything. She's seen her in action before and she knows just how cruel and manipulative she can be. "Last I spoke to her, she told me that she loved him," Santana begins, her voice quiet. "Do you want me to be honest with you?"

Quinn purses her lips and looks at Santana, nodding tightly.

"She slept with him the other night. Like, I shouldn't say slept with, because that's not really what happened, but they had sex. Made love, whatever. She loves him, Quinn."

Quinn feels something kick in the pit of her stomach and she gasps a bit, feeling her blood rush to her head. "I'll talk to her," she says, almost plainly. Her emotions have flushed and she no longer seems as upset as she was before. "Just her and I. It will be like… a meeting, or something."

Santana looks at Brittany and swallows thickly. Quinn stands and says something along the lines of having to use the bathroom, and Brittany looks at Santana, fear in her eyes.

"She's really mad, Santana," the blonde says, worrying her bottom lip in her teeth. "I know it doesn't look like it, but she is." She pauses for a moment and then gasps, grabbing onto Santana's hand in fear. "What if she kills Rachel?" Santana rolls her eyes and looks down at Brittany with a smile, running a hand over her hair.

"She's not going to _kill _Rachel," she assures her girlfriend, her voice soft enough so that Quinn can't hear them. "But I am worried as to what they're going to talk about. Quinn Fabray never takes shit like this lightly."

:.:.:

Rachel's made him her famous banana bread, which Finn hardly bothers to share with her after having the first slice. He thought that his mom's banana bread was good, and then he thought Quinn's was, but Rachel's has got to be the best he's ever tried. He's sitting on the living room couch and he's finished up the last slice, the TV playing lowly in the background. He figures he might as well ask her what makes her recipe so good, to which she just replies with a smile.

"Because I bake mine with love in it," she says as she walks back into the living room from the kitchen, smiling at him with a smile that he's sure could light up the entire house in a power outage. It's one of the hottest days so far this summer, and both of his parents are busy at work, while Kurt's left for the day to go to the mall with Blaine. Rachel thinks it's 'absolutely darling' how they're actually getting to see each other more and more, and she keeps on telling Finn how she believes that they truly are in love with one another and she hopes that she gets to plan their wedding, and by the time she begins her ramblings about what she thinks the color scheme should be, Finn attacks her with a flurry of kisses, causing her to giggle as he places his hands around her waist.

"Are you excited for the show this weekend?" Finn asks her, pushing her hair out of her eyes as it falls in her face. Since Kurt's been spending all of his free time with Blaine, he isn't around to style and straighten Rachel's hair like he had been every day, so she lets it dry on its own after she steps out of the shower and it truly does look lovely; all soft and thick and wavy and falling in her eyes when she isn't paying attention to it. "I'm so excited so hear you sing, Rach. Like, I know I've heard it forever, but getting to hear you sing in front of a big audience… you'll be perfect." She giggles and adjusts herself in his lap so that she can straddle his waist, looking down at him with a smile.

"I'm so lucky to be your girlfriend," she tells him, letting her hair fall in his face a bit. She smiles and he cranes his neck up to kiss her, not letting his hands leave her waist as he lifts her up slightly, making her giggle loud enough that it echoes throughout the entire house. He laughs at her smile and for that moment he just wants to look at her, to admire how beautiful she is and how lucky he is to be her boyfriend. "I just hope Quinn didn't take anything too seriously. I wouldn't want to have her break her heart because of her past romance with you." Finn feels his gut clench and a cold sweat break out across his forehead. As far as he's concerned, Quinn doesn't know anything about him and Rachel. He didn't think it mattered at the time, since he and Quinn were growing so far apart anyway. They argued every time they saw one another and Quinn seemed more concerned about the image of their relationship versus what it actually was, and he didn't want that. Still, he had never officially broken up with her. Then he thinks of Rachel, and how it might affect her. Would it really make him a cheater if he wasn't attached emotionally to Quinn anymore? She sure wasn't, and even if she was, she did a terrible job at showing it.

"Rach," he begins, his voice beginning to sound more serious than before. It immediately causes Rachel's brow to furl and her eyes to become darker, looking at him almost accusingly. "I need to tell you something…about Quinn." Rachel looks at him, confused.

"What about her? True, she can be a bit coldhearted at times, but there's nothing truly wrong with her."

Finn can't help but crack a smile at what she says. "No, Rach, it's just… I never really officially broke up with Quinn before… before falling in love with you." Rachel looks down at Finn and she looks disappointed, shifting herself over so that she isn't in his lap anymore.

"So I'm just… I'm a mistress to you?" She looks disappointed and sad, and stands up from the couch. She isn't wearing one of her regular dresses and instead is in a pair of shorts she's borrowed from Santana and a paper thin blouse that Finn's more than able to see her bra through, but he doesn't notice that now.

"No!" Finn says quickly, not even sure what the word mistress means. "No, Rach, you gotta understand, you're the only person in my life that I love, alright? Quinn and I haven't even been really seeing each other for the past… three weeks." She walks around for a moment before throwing her hands up in the air and raising her voice.

"But you didn't see the importance in doing so?" She looks at him, frustration burning in her eyes. "I love you, Finn, and I know that the two of you aren't even seeing one another anymore, but to not make it something official?" She sighs and she isn't facing him anymore, her arms falling down to her sides in a frustrated huff. "I don't want her to become upset with you," she says, not bothering to face him. Finn walks up behind her and rests his hands against her arms, rubbing them softly as she continues. "I know you love me, but I don't want anything bad to happen between you two." Finn wraps her in an embrace and she places her own arms around herself, leaning into his chest.

"Believe me, Rach, I just… I shouldn't have said anything." He sighs and looks down at her, holding her close. "I don't want you to think that Quinn and I are still in a relationship or whatever, okay? We've been growing apart forever lately, and ever since then, Rach, you're the only person I've been in love with. And I'm still in love with you, and I never want to stop being in love with you. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." He presses a kiss to the top of her head and he can feel her sigh against his chest, putting him at ease a bit. "I'm going to talk to her and sort things out, okay? She just… she just can't know about us." Rachel turns around to face him and instead ends up in his arms, causing her to giggle as she looks up at him.

"Promise?"

"With whipped cream and cherries on top." She giggles and stands up on her toes to kiss him, only she needs help from him this time because she's not wearing heels, so he dips down to kiss her and she smiles into his lips, making him smile back. She doesn't stop kissing him, however, no matter how many times he tries to pull away from her and return back to his place on the couch from earlier.

"We just had our first fight, didn't we?" She says, looking up at him with a little twinkle in her eye. Finn just smiles and pushes her bangs out of her eyes, tucking them behind her ear. Sometimes he just wishes she would grow them out or at least pin them back more often, because they fall in her eyes all of the time and he's never able to see the big brown eyes he fell in love with in the first place.

"I guess we did," he says softly, letting his hand fall to the side of her face. She giggles as he traces his thumb against her cheek, looking up at him and batting her eyes.

"We'll just call it a lover's quarrel," she says sweetly, her voice the best thing in the entire world. She looks up at Finn and flashes him a smile, walking back to the couch. "Our first real fight means it's serious," she reminds him, sitting back down on the couch and patting the space next to her. "And I love she you and you love me, so it only makes sense." She giggles and Finn walks towards her, sitting next to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. He loves how sweet she is and how she loves to say that they're together. They've already decided to keep it under wraps from most people, although Rachel's told Finn that Kurt knows – not only about the two of them, but her background and how she's not really from Carmel.

Rachel looks at Finn and she giggles a bit mischievously, leaning in to press a kiss to his cheek. Only instead of kissing him once on the cheek and being done with it like she normally is, her breathing becomes hotter and heavier and her kisses become more labored; placing open-mouthed kisses on his cheek and jaw and neck, whimpering softly before looking up at him.

"Remember that one night when I told you I would give you something to look at if you wanted it?" Her whisper is hot against the side of his face and he feels a chill go down his spine, unable to understand how she can go from being someone so sweet and seemingly innocent to where she is now, kissing him and having her hands rove his chest. He never would have expected Rachel to become such a… a vixen, actually. She's always been the image of innocence and angels and cherry pie and sweetness, and now, she's kissing him and whispering things into his ear to get him hot and bothered.

He's lost his train of thought now though, because she's standing right in front of him and she's got her hands against her perfectly toned legs and the way her arms push her breasts together make him weak at the knees. She's gorgeous.

"N-no," he stammers, not able to take his eyes off of her. He has no idea what she's doing, but he'd love to know what she has in mind.

"Well, Santana gave me a few pointers on how to spice things up between the two of us," she says, her voice low and husky. "I told her about how the last time we were together was so romantic and you really paid attention to all of the things I needed in order to be sufficiently pleased." She walks to him and sits on his lap, straddling his hips again. "This time, I want to make sure that I do every little thing you want me to do." Finn can't believe her. Only their second time having sex and she's all over him; seeming to be more comfortable with him almost than he is with her.

"Rach," he chokes, feeling her roll her hips into his for a moment. "I d-don't know if we can do this. At least not here." She looks at him with a small pout, her eyes sparkling.

"No one's home," she whispers, letting her hands fall between his legs. "Besides, I'd like to see how the couch compares to your bed, darling." She pats him lightly on the cheek and Finn can't believe what he's seeing, because she's so sweet and cute and _all his._

"Fine," he says, kissing her back rougher than before. "Let's see what you wanted to show me." Rachel giggles and gets up again, standing in front of him and pushing her boobs together like she was before. Her fingers move to the buttons of her shirt and she's got them all the way undone before she opens it and throws it to the floor, pausing to look at Finn.

"I figured since I was an actress, I would put on a show for you…" she says, letting her voice trail off as she lets one shoulder of her blouse fall off at a time. Before letting it fall off she looks at him and he looks shocked for a moment, trying his best to keep his eyes on hers and not on her boobs, no matter how hard it is. "Do I look better with this on or off, Finn?" He can't believe it. She's dancing around his living room and shaking her ass around and she's performing a fucking striptease for him.

For once, Finn's glad he's letting Rachel live with Santana.

:.:.:

"You're not just doing this for Rachel and I, are you?" He nervously clutches the cup of coffee in his hands as they walk around the mall, Kurt looking at him with a smile.

"Of course not," he tells him, holding his hand in his own. "I really.. I really love you, Blaine."

It had slipped out while they were sitting in the one dollar massage chairs by the elevator in the rotunda of the mall. Blaine had told a joke and Kurt laughed affectionately at him, casually letting the words 'I love you' slip from his lips.

"You're a great person, Blaine, and that's really all I can ask for. I truly think you're wonderful." Blaine smiles and looks at Kurt, causing the other boy to erupt into a fit of laughter.

"What?"

"It's just that I love you too," he tells him, making the two of them stop off towards the side. "I love you, Kurt."

He smiles and sighs happily to himself as they continue to hold hands with one another, walking out of the mall. He couldn't be happier, and neither could Rachel. Maybe everything would work out in the end after all.


	15. Opening Night

She's so happy that she gets to be in a show with all of her friends – not to mention her boyfriend. That's what they are now, or at least that's what she believes. She loves Finn and she's spent so much time with him that they might as well become an official boyfriend and girlfriend. When she's not spending time with Santana or Kurt, Rachel's with Finn, watching movies with him and kissing him and closing the door to his bedroom when his parents are gone and Kurt's on a date with Blaine so she can surprise him with some new tip Santana's showed her in those Cosmopolitan magazines. She likes reading them; they make her feel like a woman from the 21st century instead of from wherever she's from. For the first time she feels like a modern woman, being able to kiss her boyfriend and embrace him no matter what. All of the relationships she had in the past were fine on their on their own, but she could never be as affectionate with them as she is with Finn. A lady was never supposed to show how much she loved her boyfriend out in public, or simply in general. Holding hands was about the extent of what someone could do, and now that Rachel knows the difference, she's so much happier that she gets to kiss Finn whenever she wants to. She's in love with him, and she never wants to fall out of love with him – although she doubts that would ever happen.

Opening night for the musical comes quicker than she's expected. Rehearsals have been chaotic but she's managed to practice her part to a tee, making everyone from the director to her fellow cast members fall in love with her. She loves everyone and she's glad to be a part of something like the production, because she feels like she's back where she belongs. She loves Finn, but performing is her first love. She's beyond excited for the curtain to finally rise on Friday night and for everyone to see her. It would be what she would be known for around town, anyway. She's thrilled.

:.:.:

"So Rach, I've heard that you and Finnocence have been really going at it," Santana says one afternoon. It's scorching outside, and Rachel's begged Santana to drive her to Finn's all afternoon, but Santana's already told her that there's no way she's getting in her car with the broken air conditioning and driving her across town to Finn's house. So instead Santana's leant her one of her swimsuits (which doesn't very well in the top) and the two of them are lying outside at the apartment pool, tanning and soaking in as many rays as they can before their performance. "Tell me, have my Cosmo magazines been helping at all?" Rachel just giggles, and Santana can see her eyes glimmer, even behind her sunglasses.

"Things have been more… _exciting,_" Rachel says with a giggle, thinking back to her last afternoon with Finn. She likes being able to feel like a liberated woman. "And yes, your magazines have certainly been… cause for inspiration." She giggles a bit and turns over so that she's lying on her stomach, tipping her head over to look at Santana. "I'm just really glad I got to spend my summer with him, Santana. He's such… a gentleman." She sighs, wondering if she should let Santana know about anything. She probably should; she's already told Kurt and Finn's known forever, so Santana would be the most sensible person to find out next. She's grown rather close to her ever since arriving here – she's stayed in her house for practically the entire time Rachel's been with Finn and Kurt and the rest of the people in town. "Last night, he told me that he was going to help me enroll at the high school you all attend for the upcoming year. I know that I'm a year older, but I don't think that anything will matter. I fully intend on making a transfer to your school." Santana looks at Rachel with narrowed eyes, a confused expression stuck to her face. Rachel just looks at her with a small smile, eyes wide. "What?"

Santana sighs and looks at Rachel for a moment longer, tipping her sunglasses further down onto the bridge of her nose. "You're just… you just seem different, Berry. I don't know if it's the fact that you finally swiped your v-card or if you're just finally learning how to be mature, but… you've changed, that's all." Rachel feels her face flush and her arms feel numb. Santana couldn't have figured out any of any of the lies that she's set up for herself. She knows that Finn would never tell anyone, and Kurt wouldn't say anything. She had sworn him to secrecy – and if he so much as dared to tell anyone, she would find all of his Barbra Streisand records and melt them down and turn them into candles.

There's a beat of silence between the girls before Santana rolls over on her stomach and looks Rachel directly in the eyes. "You know, my abuela has this big obsession with really old movies," she begins, her voice loud and clear and proud. Rachel feels her heart race beneath her chest. "And, you know, ever since I came out we've been having some problems, but we've been getting along better lately, so when you were busy playing house with the Green Giant, we were watching _Casablanca, _because it's her favorite." Rachel can't feel her heart; it's beating so fast. She feels like she's hyperventilating and even though she's gotten a decent tan for the amount of time the two girls have spent outside together, she's as a white as a sheet.

"Anyway, I was half-watching it, really, because it was really, really boring, but when I did decide to finally watch it, I noticed something weird. There was a girl that was always, like, towards the front of groups and always looking super happy, and I had to do a double take because, well, the girl looked a lot like you." Rachel looks at Santana, eyes wide and mouth slightly hanging open. "It didn't take me long to check the credits and Google you. You're a fucking movie star." Rachel looks at Santana, swallowing thickly, while Santana seems to think this is all one big game; she's smiling and playing with the material on her swimsuit more than she is shocked and unable to understand the logic behind Rachel's lying next to her.

"And you know, at first I just thought it was like, 'oh, it's just her grandma or something,' and I figured that you were named after your grandma or whatever, so I went to Kurt and asked him, because I figured he would know… and what he told me… I wish you had said something earlier, cream puff." Rachel can't tear her gaze from Santana, biting down on her thumbnail nervously. Santana turns her head over again to look at Rachel, her eyebrows drawn up on her face with an incredulous smile stuck to her face. "You're a movie star, Rachel. Not only that, but like… you and Kurt's boyfriend are from like, the 1940's. And you look like you're eighteen." Her eyes widen for a moment, making her look at Rachel completely. "You're really eighteen, right? I mean, you're not like, some hundred year old bag who's just decided to fuck Hudson for the hell of it, right?"

Rachel looks at Santana, unsure as to what she should say. She's shocked that Santana knows, but part of her feels relieved, in a way. She doesn't have the burden of telling Santana herself anymore, but she can't help but wonder who's told her. "No," she says, giggling a bit. "Who told you?" Santana looks at Rachel with a small smile.

"Kurt," she confesses. "I told him that if he didn't I would deport his boyfriend back to where hair gel and bow ties and dancing like Carlton Banks is socially acceptable, so he spilled." The two girls giggle a bit with one another, even though Rachel doesn't understand the Carlton Banks reference, and Santana sits up so that she's sitting cross legged, looking down at Rachel who's managing to clutch the top of her loose swimsuit top to her chest. "And I mean, I didn't believe him at first, but the more he explained it, the more sense it made, I guess. That's why you're so in love with that giant you like to call a boyfriend."

"That's not why I'm in love with him," Rachel says, looking up at Santana from her position on her back. "I just… I wasn't expecting to fall in love with him, and I didn't know about that whole loophole with falling in love with someone until that night I 'met' Blaine at callbacks – which I hope you know was an enormous lie now." The girls laugh with one another and Santana just looks at Rachel, amazed.

"So you're really this time-travelling movie star," she says, bewildered. "Does Finn know?"

"Of course he knows," Rachel laughs, like it's some kind of obvious fact that Santana should already know or at least assume to be true. "He knew before anyone else. You know, it was his room that I woke up in. I think it was some kind of a sign, really. That I was supposed to be with him and him with me." Santana rolls her eyes at Rachel's romantic words and smiles. "So, I take it Kurt's explained everything to you, then. It saves my time having to explain to everyone." Santana laughs at the girl lying down on the towel next to her.

"Yeah. I mean, I got it, but I guess you're right. It was a long story. I just couldn't believe it when I saw you there."

"Yes, it was very-" Rachel immediately stops, her train of thought halting. If Santana had seen her in the movie with her grandma, then either Blaine's been lying – or nothing's worked out the way she's wanted it to. "Santana," she says, her voice short and to the point. "I need you to tell me exactly when you watched that movie."

Santana notices how stressed Rachel seems to be, standing up and almost hovering over her, leaning against the grill shoved over into the corner of the porch. "I watched it when you were gone with Finn the other day… why?"

Rachel can't breathe. It can't be right, truly, it can't. She's supposed to be gone. There's not supposed to be a sight of her in any of those old movies, and she's supposed to take on the role of some regular girl, like Santana or Quinn or Brittany. She's supposed to be a normal girl because she's in love with Finn, and he's in love with her. Something's wrong.

Rachel starts to cry, only she doesn't just feel the tears piquing in her eyes and them rolling down her cheeks . She sits up and her face scrunches up, tears rolling down her cheeks and sobs filling the little gated area surrounding the pool, causing Santana to look at her like she's crazy. "Oh, my God, Rachel, what's wrong? Did you get hurt or something?"

Rachel just looks up from the cement ground and looks at Santana, wiping her eyes. She keeps one hand wrapped around her chest to keep her halter top from falling down any more than it already has, and she sniffles through her words.

"I can't be in those movies, Santana. I just _can't _be." She sniffles a bit more and Santana notices the other people from her apartment building looking at the two of them, causing her to swing an arm around Rachel's shoulder and look at those staring with a domineering glare. Santana tips her head down to let her voice belong just to Rachel for a moment, whispering as people don't seem to get the idea that they shouldn't be directing all of their attention to a crying girl in a swimsuit that's way too big for her to fill.

"J-Blaine, h-he said, he said that if Finn and I truly loved each other, that I wouldn't be in those movies anymore. It was supposed t-to be like I was taken out of them, b-because I get to stay here now, with him and all of you." Santana looks at Rachel, almost worried for her. For a while, it seemed like all she wanted was to stay with her and Finn and everyone else, just because she had fallen so in love with Finn – and he loves her too, she knows that for a fact. The raven haired girl rests a hand against Rachel's back and adjusts her hair so that it isn't falling in her eyes; getting glued to her cheeks with tears. "And if I'm still in those movies, then Finn… t-then Finn doesn't l-love me."

"Listen to me, okay?" She says, tipping Rachel's head up with a finger. "There's no way that Finn doesn't love you, alright, Rach? Believe me, all he does now is talk about how wonderful you are with Kurt and me, and everyone else who's willing to listen. Well, besides Quinn, but that's a different story." Rachel looks up at Santana with her red-rimmed eyes, sniffling a bit. Santana can't help but a giggle a bit every time she sniffles; it's pretty cute and endearing. "Quinn's just a bitch, though."

Rachel whimpers slightly as she looks up at Santana. "What does she say?"

"Oh, she just thinks you're some distraction for her failing relationship with Finn, that's all. It's pretty pathetic, if you ask me." Rachel sighs and looks at Santana, and the rest of the people at the pool for the day have seemed to settle down and go back to their own business.

"Finn was telling me the other day that he was going to end his relationship with her," Rachel begins, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. "That's why I think that he loves me, but if I'm still in those movies, then I…"

"Look at me," Santana says, planting her feet firmly on the ground and taking her hands to rest on Rachel's shoulders. The shorter of the two girls looks at Santana with a wide-eyed expression, nerves pulsing through her body. "That boy loves you more than life itself, Rachel. He thinks you're beautiful and charming and funny and sweet, and I promise you, he's been out of the picture with Quinn for a long time." She uses a hand to adjust Rachel's hair and pushes it out of her eyes, sighing a bit. "Tonight, I want you to show up to call and kiss him, right in front of everyone. Especially Quinn." Rachel looks at Santana with a weak smile, and Santana just continues. "Besides, maybe Quinn is the thing that's standing in front of you and Finn. I know that you love him and he loves her, but… she's in denial – and that stands in the way of love sometimes, y'know?" The girls sigh together and Santana laughs a bit, looking at Rachel with a smile. "You'll do great, babe," she tells her with a grin. "But we should go, anyway. It's getting late and I don't want you out here too long. You'll get bad tan lines from that top you can't fill."

:.:.:

She's planned to do what she's been told. It takes a while for her to put all of her makeup on and do her hair, mainly because Santana's insisted to do her makeup and Kurt will have a fit if he doesn't do her hair each night, so Rachel gets to sit in the dressing room full of girls while two of her best friends make sure she looks put together before the curtain comes up. She's already gotten into costume; a lovely white dress that fits her like a glove, matched with a red sash tied around her waist and tied together in a bow at the back. She looks just like the girl who played Maria in the film adaption of _West Side Story _that Kurt's made her watch, just so she can get an idea of what she's supposed to be doing. Blaine looks absolutely charming, and everyone looks wonderful – everyone except Quinn, that is.

"I haven't seen her yet," Santana says, pulling a tube of lipstick from her makeup bag and asking Rachel to pout her lips so she's able to apply it effortlessly. "She better show up before six-thirty, though. If she doesn't make here before warm-ups, she'll be killed." Rachel's eyes widen and Santana assumes that she's taken the whole 'being killed' scenario seriously, to which she just laughs. Kurt takes a comb and teases her hair, surrounding both of the girls in a cloud of hairspray.

"Well, she told me that she was going to be running late," he confesses, taking the curling iron to Rachel's hair and nearly burning her ear, causing her to jump in her chair slightly. The other girls in the show begin to overhear their conversation and listen, some chiming in from time to time.

"She should be here. Otherwise, I don't know who's going to say her line at the beginning of the show," a girl with black hair and a red dress says. She's sitting next to Rachel, and they've managed to become rather good friends during rehearsals. Brittany's stretching in the corner of the room, her foot propped up on the top of a dresser.

"Quinn told me that she was coming late because she was going to give Rachel what she had coming," the blonde says plainly. She immediately senses Santana's glare and her face turns red, realizing what she's done. "I mean, whoops."

Rachel looks at Santana with fear in her eyes. "She's not going to hurt me, is she?" Santana just looks at Rachel, trying her best to lie and make sure that Rachel doesn't want to throw up because of her nerves.

"No," she says, not sure if she's telling the truth or not. Maybe Quinn wasn't kidding when Brittany was worried about her killing Rachel. A bit melodramatic, Santana thinks, but she wouldn't put it past Quinn. She's had her psycho tendencies in the past and killing someone would be right up there with something she could possibly do.

Kurt finishes Rachel's hair and then tells her that he'll be right back because he has to re-gel his hair (and probably steal another kiss from Blaine), leaving the girls in their dressing room.

As he leaves, Quinn walks into the dressing room. Rachel can see her reflection in the mirror, and she's already finished getting ready; her hair is neatly curled and her makeup looks pristine; it's just the look on her face that scares her. The door slams behind her and she doesn't stop looking at Rachel from the mirror, making the brunette duck her head down to look in her lap; anything to divert her eyes away from Quinn.

"Alright," Santana says, getting up from her knees and walking over to Quinn. The entire dressing room has gone silent; all of the chatter from the girls disappearing and the only noise is coming from the radio in the corner, playing a Britney Spears song quietly. "Quinn, you can't do this to her. She hasn't done anything to you, and you have no right to embarrass her like this in front of everyone."

"I'm not going to embarrass her," the blonde says, her voice sounding painfully sweet. It scares Rachel even more than before, making her not want to tip her head up even to check and see if Quinn is looking at her anymore. "I just want to talk to her."

Santana looks at Quinn, and for the first time, even she's terrified of her. "Well," she begins, her voice breaking slightly. "I guess you have a lot to talk about."

"Oh, you have no idea," Quinn says, making a chill go up Rachel's spine. "Rachel," she says, her voice cutting and harsh. "Stand up." Rachel turns her head over her shoulder to look at Quinn, gritting her teeth together.

"Quinn," she begins, her voice louder than she expected it to be. "I already know what you want to talk about, but please, I just… you're frightening me."

Quinn manages a haughty laugh and narrows her eyes at the girl, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm _frightening_ you? You're a real piece of work, aren't you?" Santana sits next to Rachel and offers the girl her hand, but she doesn't notice it. "Do you know who I just got done talking to? My boyfriend. Or, rather, my ex-boyfriend. He's your boyfriend now, isn't he?" Rachel feels her stomach twist and she starts to feel bad, finding it harder to look at Quinn. "Oh, did you guys not here?" The blonde notices the girls in the dressing room with quirked eyebrows and confused expressions on their faces. "That slut slept with my boyfriend." Rachel's eyes widen and she stands from her chair, her hands rolling into fists. Santana looks at her, in shock. She's never seen Rachel this upset before.

"Finn loves me," she protests, her voice confident. "It's not my fault you ruined a relationship you thought was perfect." Quinn just looks at her like she doesn't know what she's talking about, and rolls her eyes.

"Oh please," she retorts, puffing her chest out a bit. "You're just a skank who moved here on a whim and decided to ruin everyone's life when you got here." Santana stands and places herself next to Rachel, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Stop," she tells her, watching as Quinn walks up closer to Rachel, nearly standing directly in her face now. "Quinn, this is stupid. You're arguing over something you already know is your fault. Finn doesn't love you anymore. And look, I get it, it sucks, but you don't have to be this huge bitch about everything." Quinn just rolls her eyes and looks at Rachel, the brunette able to see the frustration bubbling up inside of her.

"Shut up," she tells Santana, her voice curt and snappy. Santana just stands there, her attitude still stuck to her face. "I'm so sick and tired of all of these excuses she has!" She's truly distraught now; hands reaching up to grab her hair and tears starting in the corners of her eyes. Rachel notices it and wants to help her, reaching a hand out to touch her arm.

"Look, Quinn, I'm sorry, but if you just talk to Finn, I'm sure-"

"No," she says through her teeth, her face nearly as red as her dress. "This is all your fault!" She brings her hand up and slaps Rachel across the face, causing the brunette to grab her cheek, looking back at up at Quinn in shock. The entire room's silent, and someone's even moved over to turn off the stereo in the corner. Rachel looks at Quinn and her eyes are wide, Santana preparing to get up and fight Quinn, but it doesn't take her long to realize that Quinn and Rachel have the exact same look on their faces.

"Rachel…" she begins, eyes welling with tears. "I'm so… I'm so sorry."

The other girls in the room all stand silent, almost stoic. Brittany rushes across the cramped dressing room and grabs Santana by the shoulder, looking at her for a moment. It's so silent you can hear a pin drop, which only adds to the heightened sense of drama and intensity in the room. Santana shoots the rest of the bystanders a harsh look and then directs her look to the stars of the show; the blonde and brunette standing in the middle of the room.

"Rachel," Santana finally says, looking at Rachel from behind. She doesn't bother to turn around because she knows that Santana's already staring at her, and part of her is afraid to meet her intense gaze, fearing it will make her even more terrified than she already is. "Go outside. Now." Quinn looks over at Santana and she just sneers, rolling her eyes. "Both of you. I don't want to listen to you to argue or figure out your shit in here, and neither does anybody else. Get out. Now." Her voice is harsh and biting and it makes Quinn practically run out of the dressing room, Rachel trailing behind her and casting glances over her shoulder at Santana, eyes filled with fear.

The door closes and it's still silent in the dressing room, Santana staring at the girls standing in front of mirrors with their mouths agape. "Everyone get back to work," she says, her voice still sharp and cutting through the harsh silence of the room. "We have a show to get ready for and those two… they just have more to do to get ready." She claps her hands once and a smile returns to her face. "So let's go!"

:.:.:

She's numb and doesn't know what she's supposed to say. The side of her face in which Quinn's hit still feels like it's on fire, but not because of the pain but instead because of the shock that's still managing to course through her. The more she thinks about it the harder the idea is to wrap her head around.

"You hit me," she manages to squeak out, her voice feeling smaller than before. Quinn just looks at her, eyes beginning to well with tears.

"Rachel, I'm so sorry," she tells her, reaching up to wipe her eyes so that her makeup doesn't smear. "I'm just… I'm sorry." Rachel looks up at Quinn and she begins to notice Quinn crying, causing her own heart to sink. She doesn't want to be the cause of Quinn's own heartache. It just wouldn't be fair.

"Hey," she tells her, reaching out to wipe the tears off of her cheeks. "Look, it's going to be alright, okay?" Rachel spots a box of tissues over in the corner, reaching over to grab one and using it to wipe the tears from Quinn's eyes. It startles her to see someone she's always thought to be so cold and cruel so broken down and vulnerable, especially with her standing up on her toes to wipe the tears from her eyes. Rachel already knows what all of this is about, too. That seems to be what makes it that much harder to handle. The fact that it could be her fault as to why a girl who was once so confident and sure of herself is crying and breaking down over something she would consider to be nothing.

Quinn looks down at Rachel and smiles slightly, looking past her eyes once she's made eye contact with her for a moment and swallowing thickly. "I shouldn't have done that," she says, chocking on her tears. "It was embarrassing for you and for me, and now everyone's going to think that I'm crazy, and-"

"No," Rachel tells her, her voice light and sweet and quiet, in part because the house has already opened but mainly because she doesn't need the pit orchestra or any other straggler in the cast and crew walking backstage to hear about their own little personal struggles. "Quinn, no one thinks that you're crazy," she says, wiping a stray streak of mascara from her cheek. "You just… you like to handle your problems a bit differently than I would, I suppose." The blonde girl lifts her head and looks at Rachel, who's mustering a smile to make her feel better.

"I'm sorry," she says again, her voice ringing true with more confidence this time. "I shouldn't have reacted the way I did to what happened, it's just… " she sighs and worries her hands together, looking down at her feet. "It took me too long to let go of what I knew wasn't there, and I hurt you in the process." Rachel looks at Quinn and the two girls exchange a glance that could be called the first friendly one between them. "And you know, it still makes me mad, but I'm going to make the best of it," she tells Rachel, almost as if she's telling her a promise. Quinn reaches over and grabs Rachel's hands in her own, causing Rachel to look up at her with a small little smile, her face half formed in shock and half in happiness. "I'm sorry, Rachel, truly I am. I just… I have some things I need to work out."

Rachel looks at Quinn and smiles sweetly. "Well, I'd be more than happy to help you along the way," she says kindly, her voice soft and warm in the large, cavernous backstage area. She worries her bottom lip between her teeth and sighs, looking up at Quinn. "And I shouldn't have pursued someone who was already in a committed relationship," she says, shame laced in her voice. "Had I known about you and Finn still being together, I-"

"No," Quinn says, squeezing Rachel's hands slightly. "We weren't really seeing each other when you two… started. He wasn't, I was. I just didn't want to hear it." Rachel looks at Quinn with a heartwarming smile and the blonde girl laughs slightly, noticing Finn in the orchestra pit over Rachel's shoulder. "You know, he asked me if you could see him when I was finished talking to him," she says, gesturing behind the brunette at the boy attempting to flip a drumstick between his fingers and fail miserably. "He wanted to wish you good luck before the show."

Rachel smiles and looks over her shoulder, seeing Finn sitting behind his trap set in the group of musicians, all preparing to play their opening note. She looks back to Quinn and the blonde girl just smiles, noticing the glimmer in her eye after she's seen Finn. Just by looking at Rachel, she knows that she loves him. Quinn was never able to say that she felt the same way about Finn in the way that Rachel feels about him. "Go," she says, nearly whispering. Rachel lingers on to Quinn's hand, and the blonde just nods and swallows, smiling brightly. "I wish the two of you every happiness," she says, her voice quiet. "He loves you. Go."

Rachel runs to the pit orchestra and looks over her shoulder to see Quinn walking back into the dressing room, to where she's sure she has enough explaining to do to the rest of the girls inside. She gives her this small little wave, like she's giving her every permission to do what she wants, and Rachel just smiles. She doesn't think about Quinn's rage overpowering her for a moment or the fact that she isn't sure as to whether or not she gets to stay with Finn for the rest of her life or not. All she sees is the one she loves, sitting right in front of her.

Finn looks at her and he can't believe how beautiful she looks in the dull, hazy red pre-show lights that bleed into the backstage area, her dress making her look unbelievably wonderful and her smile nearly lighting up all of the backstage area, making the other musicians turn to look at him as she runs to him with this enormous smile, giggling.

"Quinn said that you wanted to see me," she says, her voice still quiet. Finn walks out from behind the drum kit and grabs her by the waist, unsure if he's allowed to touch her as long as she's in her costume. He looks at her and noticed Quinn leaving, making him confused.

"Were you two just… talking?" She giggles a bit and rakes her fingers through his hair, smiling.

"Yes," she says sweetly. "And we've sorted everything out between us." She stands up on her toes and she loves him like this, all flustered and not prepared to see her. Finn just looks down at her and smiles, shaking his head slightly.

"I wanted to wish you good luck," he tells her, picking her up a bit. Rachel giggles and looks down at him once she's in the air, kicking her feet slightly. "I already know that you're going to be great, but I figured wishing you luck would be the cool thing to do." He sets her down and she smiles at him, letting her hand rest against the side of his face.

She stands up on her toes to kiss him, feeling his fingers curl around her waist as she pulls away for a moment and looks into his eyes, her breath hot against his neck. "I love you," she says, like she always does when she's kissing him. He strokes her hair and he loves how in love he is with her; he's never been so infatuated with a girl so beautiful and bright and charming. She goes back in to kiss him and tugs on his lip slightly, pulling away as the lights flash backstage, signaling the actors and crew members and orchestra members to prepare for the show ahead of them.

Finn releases her from his arms and he just watches her for a moment, running towards the dressing room and turning around over her shoulder, looking back to him.

"Finn?"

"Yes?"

"Do you… do you really love me?"

"I could never stop loving you."

She giggles and continues her little skip to the dressing room, Finn smiling back at her. The cello player says something about him having a lipstick smear across his lips, and Finn just wipes it off with the back of his sleeve. He's never felt surer about loving her. Not that the feeling's ever changed.


	16. Today, Tomorrow and Always

The show is met with glowing reviews – well as glowing as they can possibly be coming from the local newspaper. Rachel points it out to Finn one morning at breakfast; the newspaper spread out on the dining room table for everyone to see. Kurt's gone to the trouble of inviting the group of them over for breakfast; taking advantage of the fact that his parents are gone for the weekend. He's had Rachel get up early with him (which was some great feat; prying her out of Finn's arms and getting her dressed and up to the kitchen without waking her boyfriend up) and make some 'famous pancake recipe' she couldn't stop bragging about, and so far they seem to be a hit.

"See, in this picture, you can see the both of us together," Rachel says, pointing to a picture of her and Santana together, but that's not what her main concern is. "You're right _there. _Right in the corner." She smiles at looks up at Finn, feeling him pull her in closer. He's not really visible in the picture, really, it's just his hand with a drumstick in it, but Rachel insists that she keep the page of the paper and cut it out so she can keep it.

(She's still not exactly sure if she and Blaine get to actually stay, so she's been extremely sentimental lately. Finn isn't sure why she's acting this way, and it kind of scares him.)

"Yeah right, Smurfy," Santana says, snatching the paper out of Rachel's hands. Her eyes look over it for a moment and Brittany smiles, taking the paper from Santana and passing it to Kurt sitting next to her.

"Well, I think it's pretty cool," Finn says in protest, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "I get to be in the newspaper and stuff, so I think it's neat." Rachel giggles and presses a finger to his nose, giggling before leaning in for a kiss.

"Alright, alright," Kurt says, watching the two of them. "I think we'd all like to make it through breakfast without gagging." Finn looks down at his plate nervously and Rachel smiles, both of them blushing.

"These are really good pancakes, Rachel," Puck says between forkfuls of food. "Finn may have to get rid of you for a day just so you can teach me how to make these."

Rachel beams over the praise for her pancake recipes and takes Finn by the hand under the table, Quinn staring at her fervently. Her eyes aren't glaring with rage like they normally are and she's smiling, Rachel catching a glimpse of her from across the table. She's glad that there seems to be some kind of connect between them now, despite the fact that she's in love with her ex-boyfriend.

"It's my grandmother's recipe," Rachel tells Puck, pride swelling in her chest. "She always made it with her own peaches, but the canned ones work just as well, I think." Puck nods and stabs another mouthful onto his fork.

"God bless your grandma, then," and she just giggles and gives Finn's hand a squeeze.

There's the regular silence filled with forks and knives scraping against plates when they begin eating, Santana finally breaking the silence between all of them.

"So, Rachel, when are you going back home again?" Rachel looks up from her plate abruptly and her eyes meet Santana's; the raven-haired girl sending her a wink. "Or are you going to… you know, what we talked about?"

Rachel takes a swig from her orange juice and light up immediately. "Oh I was going to say something about that," she says, the rest of the table looking up at her. "Um, my parents h-have decided to let me stay here." She stutters a bit, trying to sort out her lie in her head before actually saying anything. "They're going to let me stay here while they go and teach the Japanese how to read."

Quinn makes a face and quirks an eyebrow. "Don't the Japanese already know how to read?"

"Impoverished Japanese," Rachel says, correcting herself. "Um, anyway, I'll be going to school next year with all of you." Brittany smiles widely and applauds.

"You're not living with me," Santana says almost angrily. "I mean, I don't have room for you anymore. Those dresses Kurt buys you take up about half of my closet." She shoots Kurt a look and smiles, making the rest of the table begin to laugh.

"No," she says, squeezing Finn's hand once more. She looks over at him and he gives her this dumbfounded look, making her smile even wider than before. "I'm going to live with Blaine and his… his parents."

A hush of silence drops over the table and Santana makes a confused face, staring at Finn. Finn looks over at Kurt, who smiles and looks at Blaine with the same knowing smile.

"Um, I have an older brother," Blaine says, interrupting. "He moved out a while ago and we have a spare room, and Rachel's going to be rooming with me. Just for the year, of course."

"Yes," she says, finding her orange juice glass and raising it above her head. "So with that, I'd like to propose a toast." She removes her napkin from her lap and smooths out the pleats in her dress, Finn looking up at her the entire time. "A toast to new beginnings and to everyone at this table right now," she says, casting a glance at each person sitting around her.

"For Santana, who's always supported me in my summer here, and who's given me a place to stay – not to mention all of the virgin Bloody Mary's your mother makes for us."

Santana laughs and raises her glass after taking a quick sip of her drink. "Mine weren't always virgins, sweetheart," she says between giggles, and Brittany breaks into a giggle fit. "But I'll drink to that."

"To Kurt, who's probably been the best friend I could ever ask for, and for giving me all of these wonderful and beautiful dresses," she says, letting Kurt raise his glass along with Blaine.

"To Quinn, who although might have frightened me at our first meeting, has gone to great lengths along with me to resolve our discord, and whom I hope I become a better friend of this upcoming year." The blonde girl raises her glass and looks at Rachel, the two of them exchanging a small smile between the two of them.

"To everyone else, who've all managed to make me feel like I belong here, even when, to be honest, I really haven't; you all hold a special place in my heart and I'm sorry I don't have anything better to say, but I'm sure we'll all have many more memories to make as a cast and as classmates this upcoming year." She looks down at Finn next to her, who manages to look up at her with a small smile. She feels her chest tighten and tears begin to spring to her eyes, making it harder for her to speak.

"And to Finn, who's been there with me from the first day I've gotten here, and who I can honestly say that I'm in love with," she manages to get out through tears. Finn reaches for her hand and stands next to her, raising his glass with her. She turns to face him and he wipes the tears leaking from her eyes, causing her to laugh. "And I can only hope that the feeling is mutual." The table begins to laugh and Finn laughs at her, making her smile weakly at him.

"To today," she says, "and to tomorrow, and to the rest of our days together."

The group laughs and touches their glasses to one another, Finn pulling Rachel in for a kiss while everyone else seems too preoccupied by the fact that Santana had spilled her drink over the table.

"I love you, Rach," he tells her, pressing a kiss to her nose. She just smiles and reaches up to kiss him back, giggling.

:.:.:

She and Blaine had already checked the old movies that Kurt had borrowed from his grandmother, spending an afternoon checking all of the movies he and Rachel had been in – and even went as far as to perform Google searches on both Rachel and Blaine to make sure that everything about them had been cleared up.

Rachel can't help but hold Finn by the arm protectively and ask him what a Google search is, and Finn just laughs.

"It's like, looking through the encyclopedia or something," he tells her, pointing to the laptop screen. "See, you guys aren't there anymore." Rachel pulls away from Finn and sits in the chair before the desk, staring at the laptop.

"You're right," she says after a while, almost sounding out of breath. She moves her fingers up to brush against the computer screen, turning her head over her shoulder and looking at Finn. "You're right!" She leaps up from the chair, nearly knocking it over and almost falling into Finn's arms, attacking him with kisses. He kisses her back, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"I get to stay with you know," she begins, whispering against his neck. "I get to stay with you forever." She giggles and feels his fingers rest in the grooves the ribs leave in her sides, holding her closer to him. He kisses her again and she smiles, hearing Kurt clear his throat across the room.

"All celebratory love-making should be kept to a separate room," he says, crossing his arms over his chest. Rachel turns around and feels Finn wrap his arms around her once more, blushing as she laughs at him. "You don't see Blaine and I… well, doing _that_." He moves his hands around his face in a flurry and it causes Rachel to laugh, leaning in to Finn and looking up at him.

She looks up at Finn and smiles. She's never, ever been happier.

:.:.:

There's a long line that nearly stretches outside of the lobby for the show on closing night. All anyone in town can talk about is the performance given by the high schoolers (and a handful of adults) at the community theatre. They say that the leading girl is beautiful and her voice is stunning, and the leading boy his handsome and his voice is gorgeous. All the local newspaper can talk about is the production of _West Side Story _that everyone raves about.

Santana's too busy getting her costume altered by the costume designer and Kurt's wishing Blaine good luck (which Rachel thinks is code for necking in a prop closet somewhere), and Finn's too concerned with warming up and tightening his drums up to spend time with her before the show, leaving her with Quinn to help her with her hair. She's gotten a hang of it during the run of the show, but she truly wants it to look perfect for tonight. Finn's parents are coming tonight – or his mother, anyway. She really wants to impress his mother.

Quinn weaves her fingers through Rachel's hair, nimbly pulling her hair into the curling iron and coating it with hairspray before releasing it. She looks at the girl in the mirror, offering her a small smile when she notices the nervous look on her face.

"Nervous for closing night?"

"No," Rachel says, wringing her hands nervously. "I mean, yes, but I just… I want to know if we're alright, Quinn." The blonde looks down at Rachel, her brows furrowing. "I mean, I don't know if we're supposed to be friends, or if we're supposed to hate each other – but I don't hate you." Rachel sighs and worries her lip between her teeth, lipstick smudging in the process. "I mean, we don't have to be the closest of friends, but I'd like it we could at least be acquaintances. Acquaintances would be nice, don't you think?"

Quinn laughs slightly to herself, stroking Rachel's hair that hasn't been curled yet. "You know, Santana was right about you. You really do talk too much." Rachel looks up at her and Quinn laughs; only it's not like how she's laughed in the past. Her laugh is light and sweet; like she actually cares. It surprises Rachel and it makes her want to be friends with her even more – or at least just acquaintances.

"Look, Rachel, I think we should just be friends. Not best friends that know everything about the other or acquaintances that know close to nothing about each other – but I want us to get along, alright?" The girls smile and laugh at one another and Quinn continues styling Rachel's hair. "I'm sure you're a shoe-in for the lead of the musical next year, anyway." She sprays Rachel's hair after guarding her eyes for a moment, getting down on her knees to look at Rachel in the mirror.

"You look beautiful," she tells her, patting the brunette on the shoulder. "And look, I know that it's kind of hard to see it right now, but I'm really happy for you and Finn. He… he really loves you." Rachel blushes and smiles, tucking a curl behind her ear as she looks in the mirror.

"I know he does," Rachel says, if almost to herself. "And I love him too."

A moment of silence is shared between the two girls before the door swings open, Santana wiping her hands off on her dress.

"Jesus, you would think I was a voodoo doll the way that lady was sticking me with pins –" she stops talking for a moment, noticing Quinn and Rachel laughing at one another. "Well, would you look at that? A month ago, I would have thought that you two were going to kill one another." Rachel and Quinn look at one another and giggle, Rachel looking back into the mirror.

She's never been happier.

"Oh, Rach, do you want to tell Quinn why you're actually staying?" Santana looks up at Rachel from her position of pulling her dance tights up on her legs. "Since you guys are getting along, I figured it was something she deserved to hear." Rachel begins to blush and looks at Santana with a knowing grin, Quinn staring at both of them, utter confusion stuck to her face.

"I don't understand…" Quinn finally spits out, shaking her head a bit. "Your parents are teaching Japanese children to read, aren't they?"

Rachel just shakes her head to the side and Santana smiles.

"You may want to sit down for this one, Fabray."

:.:.:

Rachel's favorite parts of being in a relationship with Finn are the moments like these; the quiet and intimate ones that she's never had before. There's nothing she would change about her experience with him and she hopes that she never has to, lying in bed with him with his arms wrapped around her and holding her close to his chest, feeling the rhythm of his heart beating against her bare back.

"Everyone thought you were great," Finn tells her, his fingers lazily tracing figures against her shoulders. "All my mom can talk about is how great you were and how pretty your voice is." She blushes slightly and turns around so that she can see his face, leaning in to kiss him once for good measure.

"I told Quinn tonight," she begins, resting a hand against his cheek. "About me and where I'm from."

Finn adjusts so that he still has his arm around her narrow waist, holding her close. "What did she say?"

"She said that she's never met anyone braver or with more courage," she says, almost proudly. "And that she finally understood why I didn't know how to use your telephone."

Finn laughs and kisses Rachel on the head, burying his nose in her hair. It still smells like hairspray, mixed in with her shampoo and perfume, smelling like strawberries and vanilla, respectively. "They're called _cell phones, _babe," he tells her. "You're going to have to figure that out before September."

She rolls her eyes and swats him on the chest lightly, looking up at him with a devious grin on her face. "You know, Santana was reading a magazine backstage tonight that made me think of you."

Finn notices her smile and tickles her sides, causing her to giggle. "Oh yeah?"

"Yes," she musters through her laugh, sitting up in bed with him and straddling his lap. "And since we're here, it reminded me of it, since I'd love to profess to you how much I love you right now, but considering our current position it might be best for us to stay silent – and you know how hard it is for me to stay quiet when we're… engaging in _promiscuous _activities." Finn laughs at her and she smiles, looking down at him and resting her hands against his chest.

"Anyway, I read something in the magazine titled 'Five Tips for a Killer Blowjob,'" she says, adding in air quotes where necessary. "And although I don't know what a 'blowjob' is, I do happen to be particularly well-versed in the field of fellatio," she says proudly, as if she's showing off her gold medal. "Would you like me to show you?"

Finn just laughs and cranes his neck up to kiss her. He loves his beautiful, smart and sexy girlfriend – and he can't begin to wrap his head around how lucky he is to have her.


	17. Epilogue

**14 years later**

"So she just hit you?" The little girl looks down at her own hands, almost as if she can't believe it. "But you and Aunt Quinn are best friends. Why would she hit you?"

Rachel smiles as she runs the comb through the little girl's hair once more. The girl has long, brown hair, just like her mother. "It was a matter of the heart, sweetie," she says, beginning to loop the girls' hair in a long braid running down her back. "But you don't have to worry about that now. Aunt Quinn and I get along better than ever now, don't we?" The girl pauses for a moment, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

"But she hit you! If I hit someone at school, I'd get in a lot of trouble." Rachel pauses for a moment, tying the girl's hair off before turning to face her.

"We get along just fine now, sweetheart," Rachel says, her voice remaining as sweet as it had been moments before. "Now, why don't you go pick out the dress you want to wear to the luncheon today?" The little girl manages to scramble off of the bed and run to her closet, where the abundance of dresses that she owns swing from their own respective hangers.

Before she picks something out, however, the girl turns back to look at her mother, her freckled face screwing into confusion.

"What's a luncheon?"

Rachel just smiles, brushing the skirt of her own dress off before standing and looking at her daughter. She resembles both of her parents and has traits from either one, making Rachel's hear soar each time she sees her.

"You know what a luncheon is, Ella," she says, walking up to the girl and tucking a stray lock of hair back into her braid. "Remember, what word makes up the word luncheon?"

The little brown-haired girl looks up at her mother, her face slowly showing her understanding of the word. "Lunch?" she finally asks, Rachel nodding her head with a smile. Ella smiles and Rachel bends down to pick her up in her arms, groaning slightly as she lifts her up.

"You're getting to be so big," she says, shifting her around her in arms. She's still dressed in her pink pajamas with the kittens on them instead of her dress, like Rachel wanted her to be half an hour ago.

Rachel wanted them out the door and in a cab half an hour ago, but Finn was too busy watching reruns of _Batman _and eating Fruit Loops with Ella on the couch – which she also protested, but she couldn't stop them when she realized how adorable both of them looked together.

"Do you think I'm going to be as tall as Daddy?" Ella asks, causing Rachel to smile even wider than before.

"It would be quite amazing, wouldn't it?" Rachel holds her daughter in one arm and picks a dress with the other. It's Ella's favorite – the pink one with the kittens and balls of yarn embroidered on the skirt. Pink and kittens seem to be a reoccurring theme with Ella Hudson.

Ella grabs her mother's hand and hooks her finger underneath Rachel's wedding band, what she always does when she's nervous or scared. Rachel turns her head to look at the girl and her own face screws into a look of worry, using a hand to push her bangs away from her face.

She asks her what the matter is and the girl just chews her lip nervously, a habit that Rachel says is a horrible habit to develop – because she's developed it herself.

"I don't want to go today," she protests, crossing her arms over her chest. "Daddy doesn't want to either."

Rachel makes a face and sets Ella down on the foot of her bed once more. "Daddy does want to go," she says, beginning to raise her voice slightly. Her heart quivers slightly. For all she knows, Finn doesn't actually want to go, and yet she considers their annual luncheon with all of their friends one of the most important things in their lives. It symbolizes how she and Finn had met and how Kurt and Blaine had met, and if Finn wouldn't want to go, it would only mean that he wasn't in love with her anymore. Whatever children said was actually true no matter how crazy, wasn't it? From the mouths of babes…

No. Ella was just trying to persuade her to let her watch _Batman _and eat more bowls of Fruit Loops on the couch.

"Sweetheart, do you know why we do this every year?" Ella shakes her head from side to side, wearing a pout to rival her mother's and her arms kept crossed over her chest. "And don't you like seeing Uncle Kurt and Uncle Blaine and Aunt Santana and Aunt Brittany?" Ella scowls and Rachel sighs, stomping her foot into the floor a bit.

"Finn!" She calls, sticking her head out of the doorway and out towards their bedroom. "Your daughter is having an episode!"

:.:.:

It's been a while since Rachel and Finn have officially become Finn and Rachel Hudson. After graduating from high school (Rachel for the second time), Rachel told Finn that she wanted to move to New York to try her hand at the Broadway stage once more, and Finn promised her that he would apply to all of the community colleges in New York just so he could stay with her the entire time.

(She's always been somewhat clingy, but it's a good kind of clingy. It's the kind of clingy that lets him do what he wants but always reminds him that she's there and hopelessly in love with him.)

Eventually, Rachel's career followed in the same pattern it had before, only with much more success the second time around. It seemed like only a few months after graduating, she was landing auditions for some of the biggest shows on Broadway, changing the world one role at a time. Finn had established a career working in a public high school in Brooklyn as a music teacher, and everything was working out wonderfully – and then Finn asked Rachel to marry him and they had a wonderful ceremony at the Boathouse in Central Park. Their honeymoon had been for a weekend in Cabo (since Rachel couldn't take too much time off from her job) and by the time they had returned home, Rachel had learned that they would be expecting a baby girl come Christmastime.

Ella had been born on Christmas Eve six years ago, and Finn and Rachel had been muddling through parenthood as best as they could. Rachel was generally better at it than Finn, but up until now, they've always managed to help one another through the parts they have difficulty in. Rachel handles the problem solving and scolding and Finn decides what cartoons are on TV on Saturday mornings. It's a pretty even balance.

"Tell Daddy why you told me you don't want to go," Rachel says, placing her hands on her hips and looking down at her daughter with a frown. Finn stumbles into the room, attempting to tie his tie. It isn't finished and he's not having any luck with it so it stays around his neck, undone.

Ella looks up at her parents and blushes slightly, playing with the hem of her pajama pants. "Because Daddy doesn't want to go." Rachel crosses her arms over her chest and looks at Finn, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"Did you tell her this?"

Finn looks confused for a moment, letting his tie hang loose around his neck. Rachel can always fix it later. "No," he says, looking down at Ella sitting on the edge of her bed. "I told her that it's important – because you know how important I think it is. How important it is for us." Rachel looks at Ella and bends down so that she's on her knees, taking her daughter's small hands in her own.

"Sweetie, do you remember the night that you had the stomach ache a couple of weeks ago?" Ella nods slowly and looks at her mom. "And do you remember how I told you the story of how you were born?" The little girl nods again and smiles, causing Rachel to giggle.

"Do you remember what I tell you all the time?" Ella nods and pulls her hands out of her mother's, pointing to her nose, Rachel doing the same on her own face and smiling. The two speak simultaneously, Ella's high and clarion voice rising over Rachel's warm one. It makes Finn laugh at the two of them.

"This is my mom's and this is my dad's," the two girls begin, Ella pointing to her nose and then her freckles in respect to what she's saying. "And I have them because they love each other." Ella moves her hands over the right side of her chest, stuttering a bit as she speaks. "But this is my heart, and I have it because I love my parents." Rachel smiles and touches her hand to her daughter's cheek, leaning in to give her a kiss.

"That's right, sweetie. Except your heart is on _this _side." She smiles and corrects her, moving her little hands over to the left side of her chest. Rachel looks over her shoulder to Finn, her smile still intact. "Just like her father, hmm?" Finn smiles and Rachel stands, walking over to Finn and taking his hands in hers. "And this lunch is a way for your father and I and all of our friends to celebrate why we love each other so much." Ella looks at her mom with a smile, Rachel extending her hand out to reach for her hand. "So what do you say, sweetie? Do you want to go now?" Ella looks at her parents, smiling the same toothy grin as always. She looks up at Finn, who looks at her with a loving smile.

"Come on, kiddo. Everyone's excited to see you."

Ella smiles and Rachel looks over at the dress she's picked out for Ella on her bed nearby.

Pink and cats really do seem to be an ongoing theme with her, after all.

:.:.:

"That girl is your daughter," Finn tells Rachel later that night as she brushes her teeth in front of the bathroom mirror. Rachel laughs and spits into the sink, walking back into their bedroom. "Stubborn and always challenging everyone else around her." Rachel giggles and looks at herself in the mirror across from their bed, shaking her head as she listens to Finn.

"She's your daughter too," she states, removing her earrings and beginning to brush her hair. "Besides, there's nothing wrong in standing up for what you believe in." Rachel turns over her shoulder to look at Finn, a smile still stuck to her face. "However, she does need to learn the difference between standing up for what she believes in and being stubborn." She smiles and looks at Finn, her teeth gleaming as she giggles.

Finn smiles as she walks over to their bed and hides under the covers, leaning into him and resting her hands against his chest, head against his shoulder.

"14 years," he says, leaning down to kiss her hair. "Congratulations, baby." Rachel furrows her brow and looks up at him, confused.

"Why are you congratulating me?" She asks. She can't see the point in offering any kind of congratulatory remarks. It's not something that's difficult; staying together. For some people, she knows it is – relationships suffer through their downfalls and have their wonderful moments as well. She knows well enough that it's happened between Finn and her, but they've managed to make it through their problems.

Ella's caused a great deal of their happiness. Rachel never would have guessed that a daughter would have brought them so much joy as she does.

"I don't think you're supposed to congratulate the one you're married to," she says, laughing a bit. "But thanks. Congratulations to you too." She leans up and kisses him, rolling herself over onto his lap. "I think today was my favorite one out of all of the luncheons, Finn." He looks up at her and places a hand on her waist, confused.

"Why?"

"This year was the first year where I felt the best about it," she tells him, unable to wipe the grin off of her face. "I'm excited for Kurt and Blaine and their child that they're adopting, and Santana and Brittany and how Santana are getting along so well, and I just… I'm so happy with how things have worked out for us." Finn smiles and continues to look up at her, making Rachel double over and kiss him again.

"I'm just so proud of us," she says with a grin. "We have an apartment and we both have jobs doing what we love and we have Ella – if I were to look at us fourteen years ago, I never would have guessed that we would be here. Together."

"We've always supposed to be together," he tells her with a smile. "It's why you're here, remember?" Rachel giggles and rolls back over onto her side, wrapping herself up in Finn's arms and shutting her eyes.

"I love you," she tells him, kissing his cheek. "I just thought the situation begged for the reminder."

Finn just smiles and shuts his own eyes, beginning to fall asleep. Maybe falling in love with the girl from the 1940's hasn't been the worst life choice of all time. He's managed to have a career he loves and he has a lovely daughter that he doesn't think he could love any more than he does, and a girlfriend – a wife, he always seems to forget to call her his wife despite the six years of her sharing his last name when she's not being credited at the top of a Playbill for her latest show and wearing the ring on his finger to remind him, but maybe it's all for the better.

Sometimes, Rachel's still the girl that came into his room fourteen years ago. She's still got the same smile she did when she was eighteen and the light creasing began to form in her forehead after Ella was born (Santana likes to blame it on all of the stress that having a child causes, but Rachel seems to tune her out). Her eyes still sparkle the way they did when he sat next to her on the Ferris wheel and her hair is still the same dark brown that it's always been, long and flowing down her back.

Ella has the same hair as her mother. She shares a lot of the same traits as Rachel. Her hair, her eyes, her nose. Her freckles and how much taller she is than Rachel was when she was six (or at least according to Rachel, that is) are Finn's traits. The fact that he can see himself and Rachel in his own daughter is still hard to wrap his head around sometimes.

If given the chance to change anything, Finn wouldn't. He loves Rachel to the moon and back and not being able to be with her would kill him.


End file.
